The Micro Stakes Playbook

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The Micro Stakes Playbook
www.blackrain79.com Page !1
! The Micro Stakes Playbook
The Micro Stakes

Playbook
Simple Poker Strategies
for Massive Success
by Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams
www.blackrain79.com Page 2
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The Micro Stakes Playbook
Copyright © 2017 by Nathan Williams
Published by Nathan Williams
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means without written
permission from the author.
To request to use any part of this book in any way, write to:
blackrain79@dragthebar.com
To order additional copies, visit www.blackrain79.com
!
Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................10
Ground Zero: A Game of Information .............................................................................................................19
Player Profiling ..................................................................................................................................... 20
The 6 Different Player Types................................................................................................................ 21
Bad Reg - Nit .............................................................................................................................. 24
Bad Reg - TAGfish ......................................................................................................................26
Good Reg - TAG .........................................................................................................................28
Good Reg - LAG .........................................................................................................................30
Recreational - Whale ..................................................................................................................32
Recreational - Maniac ................................................................................................................. 34
Hand Reading 101 .........................................................................................................................................36
Ranges, Not Hands ...............................................................................................................................37
Example Hand #1 ....................................................................................................................................39
Range Construction is Never an Exact Science ................................................................................43
The Great Play....................................................................................................................................... 44
Logic > Math.......................................................................................................................................... 45
The Preflop Strategy Playbook ..........................................................47

1. How to Create Custom Opening Ranges........................................................................................47
Stealing the Blinds Like a Pro .....................................................................................................48

Robbing the Nits .........................................................................................................................50
Example Hand #2 ....................................................................................................................................53
Example Hand #3 ....................................................................................................................................54
Rolling Out the Red Carpet For the Fish .....................................................................................55
Example Hand #4 ....................................................................................................................................56
Example Hand #5 ....................................................................................................................................57
Battling the Aggressive Regs ......................................................................................................59
Example Hand #6 ....................................................................................................................................63
Example Hand #7 ....................................................................................................................................65
2. Picking up the Easy Money Before the Flop .................................................................................. 66
Example Hand #8 ....................................................................................................................................68
Example Hand #9 ....................................................................................................................................70
3. Crushing the Regs in 3Bet Pots ...................................................................................................... 71
Preying on the Bad Regs ............................................................................................................ 71
Example Hand #10 ..................................................................................................................................76
Example Hand #11 ..................................................................................................................................77
Example Hand #12 ..................................................................................................................................79
4. How to Defend Against 3Bets Effectively....................................................................................... 81
What Should Your 3Bet Calling Range Be? ................................................................................82
Example Hand #13 ..................................................................................................................................87
Example Hand #14 ..................................................................................................................................88
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5. How to Dominate 4Bet Pots .............................................................................................................89

Example Hand #15 ..................................................................................................................................91
The Flop Strategy Playbook ..............................................................93

5. Betting the Flop Like a Pro .............................................................................................................. 95
Breaking the Nits on the Flop......................................................................................................96
Example Hand #16 ..................................................................................................................................97
Example Hand #17 ..................................................................................................................................98
Making the Fish Pay ................................................................................................................100
Example Hand #18 ................................................................................................................................102
Example Hand #19 ................................................................................................................................105
Staying in Control Versus the Good Regs ................................................................................107
Example Hand #20 ................................................................................................................................108
Example Hand #21 .................................................................................................................................111
6. Floating Their CBets Like a Champion .........................................................................................113
Example Hand #22 ................................................................................................................................115
Example Hand #23 ................................................................................................................................118
Example Hand #24 ................................................................................................................................121
Example Hand #25 ................................................................................................................................123
7. Raising Them All Day on the Flop ................................................................................................. 125
What Hands Should You Raise With?.......................................................................................126
What Type of Player Should You Raise? ..................................................................................127
Example Hand #26 ................................................................................................................................128
Example Hand #27 ................................................................................................................................130

Example Hand #28 ................................................................................................................................133
8. The Subtle Art of Dominating 3Bet Pots on the Flop .................................................................. 134
Example Hand #29 ................................................................................................................................137
Example Hand #30 ................................................................................................................................139
Example Hand #31 ................................................................................................................................142
Example Hand #32 ................................................................................................................................144
The Turn Strategy Playbook ............................................................147

9. Firing the Second Shell and Making Them Fold .......................................................................... 148
Firing Again on Turn Scare Cards ............................................................................................. 149
Example Hand #33 ................................................................................................................................150
Firing Again on Turn Equity Cards ............................................................................................153
Example Hand #34 ................................................................................................................................154
Example Hand #35 ................................................................................................................................156
10. Double Floating - The Secret Weapon ........................................................................................ 160
Example Hand #36 ................................................................................................................................161
Example Hand #37 ................................................................................................................................164
11. The Turn Bluff Raise: Owning Their Soul ...................................................................................167
What Hands Should You Bluff Raise The Turn With? ...............................................................168
Showdown Percentage: The Crucial Stat .................................................................................169
Example Hand #38 ................................................................................................................................170
Example Hand #39 ................................................................................................................................173
Example Hand #40 ................................................................................................................................178
The River Strategy Playbook ...........................................................181

12. Triple Barreling - The Strongest Play in the Game ....................................................................182
Example Hand #41 ................................................................................................................................183
Example Hand #42 ................................................................................................................................187
13. The Stop and Go Value Bet.......................................................................................................... 191
Example Hand #43 ................................................................................................................................192
Example Hand #44 ................................................................................................................................196
14. The Stop and Go Bluff ..................................................................................................................199
Example Hand #45 ................................................................................................................................200
Example Hand #46 ................................................................................................................................204
15. The River Bluff Raise.................................................................................................................... 208
Example Hand #47 ................................................................................................................................210
16. The Thin River Value Raise.......................................................................................................... 214
Example Hand #48 ................................................................................................................................215
17. The Big Call - Neutralizing Their Aggression............................................................................. 219
Example Hand #49 ................................................................................................................................221
Example Hand #50 ................................................................................................................................224
The Professional Poker Playbook ...................................................228

18. How to Study Your Poker Game and Plug Your Leaks.............................................................. 229
How to Review Your Poker Sessions ........................................................................................ 230
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Plugging The Leaks in Your Game ...........................................................................................235

HUD Setup - The Critical Advantage ........................................................................................ 240
19. Playing in the Right Poker Games - Finding the Fish ...............................................................242
How to Easily Spot the Fish ......................................................................................................243
How to Find the Tables With the Fish .......................................................................................245
20. Poker Finance - The Pro’s Edge ................................................................................................. 248
Your One Year Plan to Quickly Move up the Stakes .................................................................249
21. The Mental Advantage - Unbreakable .........................................................................................251
Understanding Variance ............................................................................................................253
This is What You Signed Up For ...............................................................................................254
1. Knowing When to Quit .......................................................................................................... 257
2. Setting a Stop Loss ............................................................................................................... 259
3. Rationalization - Overcoming Bad Beats ..............................................................................260
Final Thoughts ....................................................................................................................................264
Thank You!........................................................................................................................................... 269
Introduction
My name is Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams and I have been playing poker for over 10 years now mostly as a
full-time pro. I am known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the lower stakes in
particular.
This game has completely changed my life.
From a broke kid in my early 20’s fresh out of university with little direction, to traveling the world, making money
from my laptop, and living in exotic locations like Thailand and The Philippines.
Poker has given me the two things that I cherish the most in life. The freedom to work when I want and where I
want. And all this from a silly little card game.
And what’s more is that I have done all of this in low stakes games or “the micros” as they are often referred to. I
am guessing that these are probably the stakes that you play at too!
To this day I have very limited experience in high stakes games. I have almost always played poker for relatively
small sums of money on the internet, often playing on many, many tables at once in order to multiply my
winnings.
And I will tell you something else that might surprise you. I actually have no interest at all in battling it out with
world class pros in high stakes games and dealing with the huge financial swings that go along with that.
Nope. I got into this game to quietly make that easy money instead. I do this by consistently exercising a
substantial skill edge versus much weaker opponents in low limit games.

Your goals in poker might be different. Maybe you do want to be the next Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey. Maybe
you want fame and bracelets and all that.
Cool, that is totally fine and awesome in fact!
But first things first we need to get you crushing the micros. Because this is where it all begins and sadly 95% of
people never even make it past these stakes.
And this is where I differ radically from nearly every other poker author and coach out there. I actually specialize
solely in these low stakes games.
I am not here to try and teach you every advanced theory and overwhelm you with complex math formulas like
most of them do. That is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.
No. My goal is simply to get you winning big against the weak opponents at the lower limits, either online or live,
and then quickly moving up the stakes.
And since I have arguably more experience and winnings at these limits than anyone in history, I know exactly
what it takes to crush these games.
The reason why I have been able to not only survive, but also thrive in poker for over a decade now, is because I
have made a career out of separating the very worst poker players on the planet from their money at lightning
speed.
And this is also why I never get sick of this game. I can tell you that I still love poker just as much as I did on the
very first day that I discovered it.
And the reason why is very simple.
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Poker is a heck of a lot more fun when you consistently win big, when you crush the games for the highest
winrates possible.
And it doesn’t matter if you are content with generating a small but consistent income like I do or all you are
really thinking about is Vegas and the freaking Mirage!
Winning is winning and it is contagious, exhilarating and undeniable proof of your success and mastery of this
game.
What is winning poker though when you really break it down? What exactly is it that all of these top players, who
always seem to have the most chips, do better than everybody else?
Well, playing in games with lots of bad players in them is massively important. And the micros is where you are
going to find the vast majority of them.
Furthermore, being able to control your emotions during the inevitable downswings (run of bad cards) is also
vitally important to your success.
In fact, a huge part of winning poker can be summed up as:
Consistently exercising your skill advantage over weaker opponents and not handing that profit back to them by
going on tilt when they get lucky.
But there is something else that is just as important. And furthermore, it is something that anyone can learn in
time. This is having the right strategy in all situations and against all players.
Having the optimal strategy allows you to basically print money at the poker tables whenever you want. This is
one of the main reasons why my winrates are often so outrageously high.
What does having the right strategy against all opponents actually mean in practice though? Well, it means that
you are making the highest EV (expected value) decisions on a regular basis.
Poker is a very simple game when you really think about it. No matter what the situation is, you only have just a
handful of options: bet, raise, call or fold.
Elite winning players (the people crushing the games for the highest winrates possible) simply make the best
decision on a consistent basis. I refer to this as the great play.
Small winners and those struggling around breakeven though are much more likely to make the 2nd or the 3rd
best decision in key situations. I refer to this as the average play.
For instance they will call in a certain spot when there was a higher EV in raising. Or they will check behind
when a simple bet would have taken down the pot right then and there.
Mastering the skill of consistently making the great play is not something that you can learn to do overnight. This
is something that has taken me years and years and millions and millions of hands to master.
And that is why I decided to write this book. I get emails and comments on my blog all the time from people who
are struggling, sometimes even at the very lowest stakes.
When I look at some of their hands though I can usually see right away why this is the case. Often they are
making what I would consider the 2nd or even the 3rd best decision in many key situations.
Look, nobody is a perfect poker player. I certainly am not. But your results at the poker tables are directly
attributable to how often you can learn to make not just the average play, but the great play.
And that is indeed what this book is all about.
In American football coaches use something called a “playbook” during the game. This is a collection of their top
offensive and defensive strategies or plays.
The Micro Stakes Playbook is a collection of the top strategies that I have used over the years to produce
some of the best results in online poker history at the micro stakes.
They are essentially what I consider to be the best play possible in many of the most important situations. This is
what will take you from breakeven or a small winner to an elite winner, crushing the games.
But even though I call this a “playbook” of strategies, I know from years of playing and teaching this game that
the “why” is just as important. No Limit Hold’em is simply far too deep and complex of a game to just copy some
sort of script or blueprint and expect to win.
This is especially the case as you move up to higher stakes. A deeper understanding of the game and an ability
to find the great play on your own in the heat of the moment is required in order to win.
In other words, knowing “if A, then B” is not good enough. You need to know “if A, then why B.”
So not only will I be giving you my top strategies in many common and advanced situations at the lower stakes,
but I will also be showing you why they are the best plays as well.
Another good thing about the strategies in this book is that they are essentially timeless. They will work in any
game and against all opponents both online and live.
I have been using these plays with success for over 10 years now and I know that I will be able to continue to
use them well into the future as well.
The reason why is because they are all heavily based around understanding player types and then exploiting
their weaknesses.
Recently some people have created a name for this style of play that I have been using and advocating for over
a decade now. They call it an “exploitative strategy.”
Whatever label people want to put on it really doesn’t concern me much. The reason why I still use and
recommend this style of play at the lower limits is because it simply crushes these games for the highest winrate
possible.
There is no other strategy that even comes close to being as effective at the micros. And this is because nearly
everybody at these stakes has significant leaks (weaknesses) in their game.
Once you learn how to find them and exploit them, then your opponents literally become like your personal ATM
machine. You can just sit down and withdraw money.
Let me also assure you that you don’t need to know any complex math in order to read and understand this
book. There is a common myth out there that you need to know advanced mathematics in order to beat the
lower stakes.
Nothing could actually be further from the truth.
And thank god for that because most people don’t want to spend years studying some complex “game theory” in
order to beat the $10 games online!
Yes, it is true that poker is a game based around odds and statistics which are are of course ultimately both
mathematics. However, you only need to know the very basics in order to win big at the micros.
What I am going to be teaching you in this book instead has much more to do with logical reasoning. This is
what is truly at the heart of elite poker.
This is the ability to understand your opponent so well that you can literally predict what they will do and what
kinds of hands they will show up with in every scenario.
And then from there you can make the logical decision as to which action will counter them in the most profitable
way. In other words it allows you to consistently make the great play instead of the average play.
For example, I am talking about semi-bluff shoving the turn with ace high and a draw because you know that
your opponent cannot call. Or calling down three streets with middle pair because you know that their bluffing
range is too wide.
These are the types of strategies that I will be discussing and teaching you in this book. But not everything will
be flashy advanced stuff like this.
I will also be covering the most basic types of exploitative play at these limits as well such as blind stealing,
3Betting, CBetting and floating strategies against various player types.
It is important to note that while this book is not going to be overly difficult to understand, it is not a beginners
book either.
For instance, I am not going to be telling you what hands to play, how much to make your bet sizes, how to use
position and so on. This book assumes that you already know all of that.
Also, I have written two other books which cover every fundamental aspect of poker like this in painstaking detail
anyways.
These are:
• Crushing the Microstakes (NL2 and NL5 online, $1/$2 and $2/$5 live).
• Modern Small Stakes (NL10, NL25 and NL50 online, $5/$10 and $10/$20 live)
If you are brand new to poker or you don’t have a solid grasp of the basics yet, then I would suggest reading one
of these first.
Lastly, I want to urge you to read this book carefully and study it thoroughly. I didn’t write it to provide you with
entertainment. I am certainly no John Grisham or Steven King.
The whole point of this book is to improve your poker game and ultimately your winrate at the poker tables, right
now.
This book (like with everything that I put out) is not theory. It is instead a practical guide based off of millions of
hands that I have played at the micros.
The main point of this book is for you to take these strategies to the poker tables yourself and start winning
immediately.
The best “thank you” emails and comments that I receive are from people who tell me that my advice took them
from a losing poker player to a winning poker player. Or from breakeven to a big winner.
They often send me their graph as “proof” of their success. I want to see your winning graph next!
Look, poker is a very simple game at the end of the day because winning is the one and only true measure of
success. We keep score with money. It silences all the critics immediately. It ends all doubt.
My hope is that the strategies in this book allow you to start doing just that.
Lastly, this book will cover all formats at the micro stakes including 6max, full ring and zoom games online. There
are simply not enough strategic differences between them to necessitate whole sections for each.
Where differences arise, it will be pointed out in the text. So without further ado let’s get started!

Ground Zero: A Game of Information

Poker is a game played between people.
This is why the heart of all poker strategy must always begin with a thorough understanding of who we are
playing against. We need information on how they think about poker and play the game.
This is something that you do by observing your opponents at the poker table.
For example:
• Are they playing tight or loose?

• Do they seem aggressive or passive?
And even more specifically,
• How often do they make a continuation bet on the flop?

• How often do they follow it up with another bet on the turn?
And so on and so forth.
Now if you play online then you can just use a HUD (heads up display) which helps a lot in this regard.
This is because it collects data on your opponents as you play against them and then displays that information
right on your screen for you.
There is a large section near the end of this book which explains all of the stats that I use and tells you exactly
how to setup your HUD. You can even download my personal HUD and use it yourself.
However, I am not going to talk about HUD stats in heavy detail throughout most of this book. I will only mention
them on occasion where applicable.
And the reason why is because I want to bring everything back to the basics in The Micro Stakes Playbook.
The ability to observe and quickly categorize your opponents is one of the most important skills that you must
master in poker whether you are using a HUD or not.
And if you play live (in a casino) or on certain online poker rooms which prohibit the use of HUDs, then you will
be out of luck anyways.
Player Profiling
So everything for me in poker begins with something that I call player profiling. This is the process of creating
various categories of player types. Why do we need these though?
Well, as I mentioned before, nearly every poker player at the lower limits has weaknesses in their game. Now, if
you had to figure out these leaks for each individual person, this would be an absolutely nightmarish waste of
time.
The reason why is that the micro stakes (roughly NL50 and below online, 1/2 and 2/5 live) are where 90% of
people play poker. You will quite literally face thousands of different opponents in your poker career at these
limits.
This is why I prefer to narrow it down instead into several different player types. These are groups of players who
have many similarities in the way that they play the game.

More specifically this means that they have a lot of the same strengths and a lot of the same weaknesses.
Therefore, once we determine that a certain person fits the profile of a certain player type, then we can already
make some pretty accurate predictions about how they are likely to play.
And of course the biggest benefit of these player types is that it is a massive time saver. With online poker in
particular you may have 2, 6, 12 or even more tables going at once. You simply don’t have time to be keeping
track of each individual player.
The 6 Different Player Types

So I break my opponents down into 6 different categories. This is enough to adequately describe the vast, vast
majority of players that you will ever encounter at the micros.
Bad Regulars Good Regulars Recreational
Nits TAGs Whales

TAGfish LAGs Maniacs
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Regulars
Four of the six player types are reserved for regulars (referred to as “regs” throughout this book). These are the
kinds of players who you will see most often at the micro stakes.
The key similarity between them is that they are all trying to win. They might even study the game like you do
and use a HUD as well.
However, this does not necessarily mean that they are any good at poker. This is why I break it down even
further into “good regs” and “bad regs.”
Now fortunately at the lower stakes these days there are still far more bad regs than good regs. And so because
of this, finding the best ways to exploit the bad regs will be a huge focus of this book.
Recreational
The other two player types are reserved for recreational players (referred to as “recs” throughout this book).
They are sometimes lovingly referred to simply as “the fish” or “fun players” as well.
Recs are almost always losing poker players. They play the game purely for fun and they don’t really ever even
think about trying to improve.
These players are where the majority of your profits will come from. This is why it is so insanely crucial that you
make playing against them a top priority in today’s games.
I will have an entire section dedicated to finding the fish and getting the right seat against them near the end of
this book.

A couple quick points before we begin:
1) I will be using a simple bar graph for each player type to give you a general idea of how tight and aggressive
they are. 1 is the absolute lowest and 10 is the absolute highest.
2) I will also include the most basic HUD stats for each player type so that you know exactly what to look for if
you play online.
• VPIP: Percentage of hands they play

• PFR: Percentage of hands they raise
• 3Bet: Percentage of the time they re-raise preflop
• AF: Aggression factor (mathematical representation of how aggressive they are, 1 is the lowest and 5 is the
highest)
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Bad Reg - Nit
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
The first player type is the Nit. You will find these players at all levels of the micros online and very frequently in
small stakes live games too. They (along with the next player type) will be by far your most common opponents
at the micros.
Nits fold far too many hands preflop and leave a ton of money on the table by doing so. They also very rarely get
involved in a significant sized pot after the flop without the nuts (the best hand or one of the best hands
possible).
You simply cannot ever expect to crush any poker game with this sort of mentality. The reason why is because it
is very hard to make the nuts in poker. It happens very rarely.
And so therefore if you don’t get involved more often you end up just bleeding away your money through the
blinds and folding to CBets. This means that when you finally do catch a big hand you are just recovering your
losses rather than profiting.
To the credit of the Nits though, when they do finally pick up a strong hand they usually play it confidently and
aggressively. However, they tend to play too passively and weak in all other situations.
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This means that they often give up on pots too quickly and can be easily pushed around. This presents us with
numerous highly profitable opportunities to bluff them.
Nits typically have tons of leaks in their game like this which are easily exploitable and will be discussed
thoroughly throughout this book.
A typical Nit will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 16/13/4/2
Full Ring: 11/9/3/2
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: fold way too many hands

• Preflop: fold to 3Bets too often
• Postflop: fold too easily versus aggression
• Postflop: won’t play a big pot without the nuts
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: steal their blinds like crazy

• Preflop: 3Bet light frequently
• Postflop: apply constant pressure
• Postflop: force them to play a big pot often
! 5
Bad Reg - TAGfish
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
TAGfish are the other player type that you will find in huge numbers in today’s micros stakes cash games. TAG
stands for “tight and aggressive.”
However, this player type only pretends to play a solid tight and aggressive game. The reality is that they
typically have huge leaks in their game and are among the weakest regs. This is why they are referred to as
“TAGfish”
Unlike the Nits though, these players are only slightly tight. That is, they will get involved preflop and postflop
more often with speculative hands. This is definitely a good thing.
However, they are still well known for having many of the same weaknesses as the Nits. Specifically, a lack of
aggression and unwillingness to play a big pot without the nuts.
Also, since they get involved in more pots than the Nits, their range ends up being wider in most spots. Or to put
it another way, their average hand strength is lower.
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This allows us to push them out of the pot even more frequently by simply applying a little bit of pressure in the
right spots.
A typical TAGfish will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 20/17/4/2
Full Ring: 15/12/3/2
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: fold to 3Bets too much

• Postflop: fold too easily versus aggression
• Postflop: won’t play a big pot without the nuts
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: 3Bet light frequently

• Postflop: apply constant pressure
• Postflop: force them to play a big pot often
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Good Reg - TAG
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
Tight and aggressive players are the most common type of good reg that you will encounter at the lower stakes.
You won’t see them in large numbers at these limits though. They are still vastly outnumbered by the two
previous player types.
It should be noted that TAG is indeed my recommended style of play for micro stakes games. As you can see
by the chart above, TAGs tend to play a well balanced style of poker which is reasonably tight but with good
levels of aggression as well.
Because of this they aren’t nearly as easy to read and push around like the Nits and TAGfish. This is why they
are also consistently among the biggest winners in these games.
However, as I mentioned before, nearly all players at the micros have weaknesses. With the stronger player
types like this one, it just takes a little bit more digging around to find them.
One notable weakness that many TAGs at the lower limits have is being too aggressive in some spots. This
shows up specifically in 3Betting/4Betting preflop and bluffing too much after the flop.
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There will be several strategies discussed later on in this book which are tailor made to exploit this.
A typical TAG will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 20/17/8/3
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: 3Bet and 4Bet too aggressively

• Postflop: bluffing range is too wide
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: flat more 3Bets and 4Bet light

• Postflop: call down with a wider range
! 9
Good Reg - LAG
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
LAG or “loose and aggressive” players are the other type of good reg that you will sometimes encounter at the
lower limits. These players and TAGs will often be among the biggest winners.
However, LAG is the most difficult style of play to master in the game. This is because by playing so many hands
you put yourself in a lot of marginal situations.
This requires an advanced level of skill and hand reading ability that most players at the micros simply do not
possess.
But even more importantly, being in so many marginal spots means that when the cards go bad for a LAG, they
really go bad. This requires excellent emotional control which most low limit poker players are also not known
for.
So even though I classify LAGs among the “good regs,” some of them will actually be among the very worst regs
that you will encounter especially if they have issues with tilt.
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Many small stakes LAGs have the same weakness as the TAGs. That is, they can be too aggressive in key
spots.
This is even more troublesome for LAGs though because due to the amount of hands that they play, their range
when bluffing will often be very weak.
This will allow us to pick up plenty of pots from them by just calling down wider than normal. This will be
illustrated in numerous examples throughout this book.
A typical LAG will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 25/22/8/3
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: 3Bet/4Bet too aggressively

• Postflop: bluffing range is too wide
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: flat more 3Bets and 4Bet light

• Postflop: call down with a wider range
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Recreational - Whale
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
Whales (sometimes called “passive fish”) are the first type of recreational player that you will see in micro stakes
games. They are also by far the most common type of rec player that you will encounter.
They tend to play far too many hands and play them far too passively as well. They are always big time losing
players in the long run with huge fundamental leaks in their game.
A massive amount of your profit in poker will come from this one player type alone. This is why finding them and
understanding how to get the maximum value out of them is absolutely crucial for your success in poker.
A typical Whale will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 50/8/2/1
Full Ring: 50/8/2/1
! 2
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: play way too many hands and play them way too passively
• Postflop: call with far too many hands and chase every draw
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: isolate them like crazy especially in position

• Postflop: value bet them to death
! 3
Recreational - Maniac
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tight Aggressive
The other type of recreational player is the Maniac or “aggro fish.” They are not nearly as common at the lower
stakes as Whales. But you will find them in larger numbers at higher limits.
Maniacs play far too many hands and they play them far too aggressively as well. All they know is limitless
aggression and there is little to no thought behind anything that they do.
When things inevitably go bad for Maniacs due to their terrible play, they will often go on massive tilt and literally
become human ATM machines. This player type loses their money at a faster pace than any other. Therefore,
they are insanely profitable to play against and there are countless ways to exploit them.
A typical Maniac will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):
6-max: 50/35/10/4
Full Ring: 50/35/10/4
! 4
Weaknesses:
• Preflop: play way too many hands and play them way too aggressively
• Postflop: bluff way too much
Ways to Exploit:
• Preflop: play as many hands as you can against them especially in position
• Postflop: call down wide and let them bluff away their money to you
! 5
Hand Reading 101

So now that we have a good understanding of the various player types it is time to use this information to our
advantage at the poker tables.
And what is the most important thing that we want to know? That’s easy of course. We want to know what hand
they have! Some people call this “hand reading.”
If we knew our opponent’s hand every time then we could literally play perfect poker against them. We would
crush them beyond belief and they would never stand any chance of beating us.
But this of course is not the reality of how the game is played. Poker is a game of incomplete information.
So it is up to us to play detective and make our best educated guess as to what our opponent might have. There
are two key components to reading somebody’s hand.
These are:
• The player type

• The action
As we just saw, some player types are loose, tight, passive or aggressive. Therefore, we will be able to include
(or exclude) certain hands that they can have based off of this alone.
But just as important is the action in the hand.
! 6
Definition: “The Action” - The sequence of decisions that a player makes throughout a hand (bet, raise, call or
fold). This is also sometimes referred to as the “line” that somebody takes.
So for instance, when somebody raises preflop and then bets the flop and turn this tells us a lot about the
strength of their hand. The relative positions at the poker table also play an important role here.
Ranges, Not Hands

Now actually reading your opponent’s exact hand is kind of an old school way to approach the game. We have
all seen some high stakes pro on TV call out somebody’s hand and they look like a genius when they are right.
But most of the time they will not get the exact hand right. And furthermore, it doesn’t even matter if they do or
not. The reason why is because nobody ever has just one specific hand in any particular situation. They have
what is called a range instead.
You may have heard me use the term “range” several times by now. It is very important that I explain this
concept before we get into the core ideas of this book.
Definition: “Range” - The entire spectrum of hands that a player can have in a particular situation.
A good way to think about this is to imagine playing the exact same hand 10 times in a row against the exact
same player.
! 7
Your opponent might show up with:
• A flush 2 times
• Top pair 2 times
• Middle pair 1 time
• Bottom pair 1 time
• A missed draw 2 times
• A total bluff 2 times
And the important thing to know is that everybody (yes, even the fish) will have a range. That is, they will show
up with more than one type of hand in a particular situation.
So this is why the age old idea of “putting them on a hand” is an outdated and narrow way of looking at the
game. Because even if you get their hand right, all you actually did was guess correctly about which part of their
range that they showed up with, this time.
By learning how to think about poker in terms of ranges instead, you will immediately take your game to another
level.
This is because it allows you to start seeing the bigger picture and rise above superstitious thinking. This in turn
will allow you to explore all of your options in a hand and ultimately find the great play with a much greater
consistency.
For instance, in a few different sections later on in this book I will suggest some aggressive plays (bluffs) that
might appear totally crazy to you at a first glance.
And I have used these plays myself many times at the poker tables only to run into the very top of my opponent’s
range (AA, set, flush etc.). Suffice it to say, I looked like a complete fish. I lost all of my chips as well.

But if I put my opponent on the correct range of hands, and my bluff shows a profit against that range of
hands, then there was actually nothing wrong with my play.
In fact it was the right play and we should keep doing it again and again even though on occasion we will run
into the nut portion of their range and look like a complete fool.
Don’t worry if this is all still a bit unclear to you. Determining our opponent’s range and then finding the best play
against it will be at the heart of everything that I talk about later on in this book.
In fact, let’s get into an example right now.
1) Please note that throughout all hand examples in this book “hero” refers to us and “villain” refers to our
opponent.
2) Also note that all examples in this book will assume 100bb (big blind) starting stacks for all players involved.
3) EP = Early position, MP = Middle position, LP = Late position (button and cutoff)
Example Hand #1
Nit villain raises from EP
Hero 3Bets from the button with:
! 9
Villain 4Bets
Hero???
We know from the player type analysis above that Nits are very tight. Also, early position is where most people
play the fewest hands, regardless of player type.
So when a Nit opens from this position, we can expect them to have a very tight range.
Their range might look something like this:
Note: Disregard the exact suits above, they are not important

So in this very simplistic example you can see how we can construct an EXACT range for a player. But as I
mentioned before, the action in the hand is just as important in providing us with clues about our opponent’s
range.
After the Nit opened in early position we went ahead and 3Bet with our pocket queens from the button. Villain
then came back over the top with a 4Bet.
So given this new information we can now narrow our opponent’s range down even further. In fact a lot further.
Our opponent’s likely range will now consist of just two hands (once again disregard the suits):
These are:
How do we know this though?
By analyzing the sequence of events. As we just noted, when a tight player like this opens from early position
this indicates a strong range.
But we still went ahead and decided to 3Bet him anyways. So this play shows even more strength given the
situation. And yet despite all of this, this tight passive Nit still decided to take the ultra aggressive action of
4Betting us!
Now assuming standard 100bb starting stacks a 4Bet usually amounts to about 1/4 of the chips that you have in
front of you.
! 1
So when somebody makes this play it essentially means, “Hey, I’m not messing around here, we can play for all
the money right now.”
So given everything that we know about this player type and the way that the action went, villain’s hand is almost
face up at this point.
And what this really means as you see above is that we are absolutely crushed.
As crazy as it might sound, unless the stacks are super deep (200bb+) we should just go ahead and fold our
hand at this point. We cannot stick 1/4 of our stack in the middle here as a massive underdog and expect to turn
a long term profit.
! 2
Range Construction is Never an Exact Science

Now the problem here is that our prediction of somebody’s range in any given situation (even a ridiculously
simplistic one like this) will never be 100% correct.
In fact we are getting dangerously close to that sort of dogmatic black or white thinking of “putting someone on a
hand” that we talked about avoiding before.
So it would be silly to claim that the player in the example above will never show up with anything else besides
AA or KK.
Once in awhile a Nit will decide to get over-aggressive with a hand like AK here. Also, there is always a chance
with any player type that they are on crazy tilt and just decided to run a huge bluff out of nowhere.
The point here is that range construction is not an exact science. We will never be right 100% of the time. Our
best educated guess is all that we are really after here.
So what we are really saying in the example above then is that most of the time, given what we know about this
player and the action in the hand, they will show up with either AA or KK.
This means that our fold is still correct even if he turns over a bluff once in awhile and we look silly. We are
playing against a range, not a specific hand.
! 3
The Great Play

Something else that I want to explore in more detail before getting into the real nuts and bolts of this book is the
great play.
I have mentioned it several times now. The great play is the most profitable action that you can possibly make at
each stage of a poker hand. This is one of the biggest differences between the small group of poker players who
absolutely crush the games and everybody else.
And the hand that we just discussed is a good example of this. Most big winners would never actually put
themselves in this position in the first place.
The great play in the example above was actually just to flat the original preflop raise. The average play was to
3Bet and it was only used for the example.
The reason why just flatting the original raise is the superior action in this hand is because it keeps villain’s entire
range involved. This is all of the hands that we originally listed, most of which we are a large favorite against with
QQ.
! 4
Also, the simple fact that we have position throughout the entire hand makes us a statistical favorite as well.
This is because we will be in complete control of the hand from start to finish. We can choose what size of pot
we want to play, bet or raise for value when we want and bluff when we want to as well.
The average play on the other hand was to 3Bet the initial raise. This is the knee-jerk reaction that a lot of micro
stakes players will make here. And they will often do so on the basis that it is the mathematically correct play.
And they would be totally correct in that assessment. QQ is a monster hand (3rd best in the game) and we are
very likely to be ahead in most situations in poker.
However, the mathematically correct play is not always the best play in poker. In fact sometimes like in this
example it can easily lead us into making the 2nd best decision.
Logic > Math

Understanding the basic mathematical odds in poker is a given. It is something that every poker player should
know.
But elite poker players know that the ability to logically deduce the best course of action is how you take your
game to the next level. And what this really involves is comparing the expected value (EV) of each decision.
When we 3Bet here it forces our opponent to fold most of the hands that we are crushing. For instance, all his
small pairs (22, 33, 44, 55, 66), his broadways (KQ and KJ) and some strong aces as well (AQ and AJ).
! 5
And conversely, we help him build a bigger pot when he happens to have one of the few hands that crushes us
(AA and KK) or that flips with us (AK). Do you see how this is a lose/lose situation for us and a win/win situation
for our opponent?
Now of course yes, when we do just flat the initial preflop raise we will face a difficult postflop decision
sometimes, when an A or K flops for instance.
That’s ok though. This isn’t something to be afraid of. We can just play a little poker in position and make a fold
from time to time depending on how the hand plays out.
The important point here is that there is a higher long term EV in seeing a flop in position versus this player’s
entire range, rather than forcing him to fold and taking down a tiny pot.
And since poker is completely and undeniably a long term game, this is the only thing that really matters.
Elite poker players know this and that is why they will always make the great play here instead of the average
play, even though the average play appears to be mathematically superior.
Consistently finding the great play and achieving world class results requires the ability to think beyond the math.
That is exactly what this book is going to teach you how to do.
Alright, enough buildup and terminology. Let’s get into the Playbook!
! 6
The Preflop Strategy Playbook

So now that we have introduced some of the main themes of this book like player types, ranges and finding the
optimal play let’s get into some actual poker strategy here.
What follows are the 21 most powerful plays that I have used over the years to create some of the highest
winnings ever recorded at the lower limits online.
Some will be simple and some will be highly advanced. But all of them, when used in the correct manner, and
with diligence over time, will create a massive difference in your results at the poker tables.
Everything in poker always starts before the flop so let’s begin there.
1. How to Create Custom Opening Ranges

A solid preflop strategy always starts with opening the right hands in the right positions. We want to maximize
our value with our good hands and put ourselves in the most advantageous positions after the flop.
Since this is not a beginner’s book though (and this topic was covered thoroughly in my two previous books), I
am not going to discuss it in detail here.
Also, The Starting Hand Cheat Sheets, which were included as a free bonus with this book, gives you an exact
breakdown of what hands to play from every position in both 6max and full ring anyways.
Now it is fine to memorize some charts like this especially if you are just starting out. This gives a beginner level
player in particular a great baseline to work from.
! 7
However, if you really want to take your game to the next level, then it is necessary that you start creating some
custom opening ranges based on who is actually seated at the poker table.
And one of the best (and most profitable) places to begin is with blind stealing.
Stealing the Blinds Like a Pro
One of the most effective and immediate ways to improve your winrate in poker is to start stealing the blinds
more efficiently.
Just to make sure that we are on the same page here, when I talk about stealing the blinds I am referring to a
situation where it has been folded to you in either the cutoff or the button.
Since there are so few people left to act behind you at this point, you can often make a raise and just take down
the pot uncontested.
Many people discount the value of stealing the blinds these days. This is an absolutely huge mistake.
In today’s micro stakes games where a really good winrate is often considered to be 5bb/100 or 10bb/100 at the
most, the value of stealing the blinds more often simply cannot be overstated.
Let’s use a bit of simple math to help illustrate this:
Every time you successfully steal the blinds you win 1.5bb (big blinds). This is the total value of the small blind
and the big blind.

Therefore, if somebody who is currently a small winner (say 3bb/100) was able to find just two more spots every
100 hands to take down the blinds, they would effectively double their poker winnings, overnight.
Yes you read that right, double their poker winnings.
The other thing to remember is that you don’t even need to risk that much in order to try and steal the blinds.
I recommend raising it to 2.5x the big blind when you are in a steal seat. Some people go even lower these days
to 2.2x or even just a mini-raise.
When you are risking such a small amount, you simply don’t need to take down the pot all that often in order to
turn a profit.
And of course even when you do get called you still get to play the entire hand in position after the flop. Due to
the incredible power of position in poker this automatically makes you a favorite to win the hand regardless of
the cards.
So let’s start by creating some custom blind stealing ranges based around the player types that we discussed
above.
! 9
Robbing the Nits
The most important thing to consider when attempting to steal the blinds is who is actually seated in them. No
other factor (including what your hand is) really even comes close.
Some player types will let you steal their blinds all day long while other player types will fight you tooth and nail
for every pot and re-raise you frequently.
The Nit and TAGfish player types are the ones who consistently give up their blinds the easiest.
Some of these players will fold their blinds as much as 80% or 90% of the time. If you are using a HUD, the
applicable stat to check here will be Fold to Steal.
If you play online, these are often the types of players who will be playing too many tables at once as well. This
means that they are often strapped for time.
Therefore if they have a marginal hand, they will usually just let it go. We want to be taking advantage of this as
much as possible.
And also, since they give up so often it is very easy to play against them when they do finally call us or fight back
with a 3Bet. It is very likely to be a strong hand.
As we saw above, these player types typically don’t re-raise very often. They will usually have a 3Bet% of
somewhere between 1 and 5 (6max or full ring).
! 0
Even at the very high end of this range, you can see just how tight this is:
This range is almost exclusively for value. In fact it is almost all premium hands! So this means that we can very
easily get away from our hand when they finally do decide to fight back.
So it is a very simple approach versus these player types. If I notice that there are two players in the blinds that
are either Nits or TAGfish, then I am going to be open raising with a huge range.
I will often be raising with as much as half the deck in these situations. That is, 50% of all hands dealt to me.
! 1
Here is a rough idea of what the top 50% of hands looks like:
Earlier I mentioned that you could realistically double your winrate by picking up the blinds just two more times
every 100 hands. Well this is one of the absolute easiest ways to do that.
You should be open raising with an absolutely massive range like this in late position if you notice a few Nits or
TAGfish in the blinds. And since these players are so common these days, especially at the lower limits, this
situation comes up a lot.
! 2
You can even expand your range a little bit in other positions to take advantage of this as well. In other words,
you don’t necessarily need to be in late position. You don’t want to go too crazy with this though.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Example Hand #2
Hero is in EP with:
The small blind is a Nit and the big blind is a TAGfish
Hero should RAISE
This hand is typically a default preflop fold in either 6max or full ring due to our poor position at the table.
However in this particular situation it is absolutely fine (and profitable) to raise with it.
The reason why is because there are two weak/tight bad regs in the blinds. The likelihood of them folding their
hands and surrendering the pot to us is high.
! 3
However it is important to note that there are many other players left to act between us and the blinds. And some
of them might be loose and/or aggressive.
Therefore, we don’t want to get too out of line in a spot like this. A 50% open range for example would be
suicidal from early position.
So while I want to take advantage of the two fold machines in the blinds, I also have to be realistic about my
position at the table here.
I want to add a few more high quality hands that play well after the flop such as suited connectors and maybe a
few suited aces as well. We still need to be folding all of the junk like K7, J8, 96 and so on though.
Example Hand #3
Hero is in the cutoff with:
The small blind is a Nit and the big blind is a Nit
Hero should RAISE
! 4
Once again this is a hand that I would often fold in this situation in either 6max or full ring. However, the
likelihood that these two players just hand over their blinds to me is too good of an opportunity to pass up.
In order to get ahead in poker you are sometimes going to have to play some “trashy” hands like this in the right
spots. You don’t need to wait for the nuts in order to take advantage of a couple Nits who are trying to give away
their money.
The main difference between this hand and the last one is that we are in late position this time. Since there are
far fewer players left to beat, junky hands like this can become playable.
Rolling Out the Red Carpet For the Fish
The other player types who you want to be frequently stealing the blinds against are the recreational players. But
the reason why is actually the exact opposite.
The reason why stealing the blinds a lot against the recs will improve your winrate dramatically is because our
profitability in position versus this player type is massive.
As we know, fish play far too many hands preflop. This alone puts them at a huge disadvantage. Not only will
this make it much harder for them to make a strong hand postflop, but they also put themselves in a position to
get coolered much more often.
This means that due to the inferior cards they play, they will lose more often to a better kicker, a better two pair, a
higher flush and so on. And since they notoriously can’t fold a hand to save their life, this is like winning the
lottery for us.

They also have little regard for the value of position in poker. We will simply win way more pots by getting to act
last on every street postflop.
But the biggest reason why stealing the blinds against the fish is so profitable is because they play badly. They
consistently make huge mistakes after the flop that even the very worst regs would never make.
For instance, rec players will frequently call down with really weak hands and sometimes even with nothing at all
when they clearly should not even be in the hand.
The regs simply won’t do this. Therefore, you can get way more value out of the fish any time you make any kind
of a hand.
So the deck is completely stacked against them. And this is why I recommend opening with a range of hands
just as wide when you see a fish in the blinds. Once again, that is about the top 50% of hands.
Example Hand #4
Hero is in the cutoff with:
The small blind is a Nit and the big blind is a Whale
! 6
Hero should RAISE
This is another spot where we can look to turn a profit with a fairly junky hand simply on the basis of who is left
to act behind us.
The Nit in the small blind will probably fold 80% or 90% of the time and only fight back if he has the nuts. The
Whale in the big blind on the other hand will probably call us at least half the time.
So versus a range this wide our suited trash here is actually doing ok. But more importantly we will have position
throughout the hand and a massive postflop skill advantage.
The bottom line is there is nothing on earth better for your winrate than playing pots in position against the fish.
Any remotely playable hand can be turned into a winner. Elite poker players do not let these opportunities slip by.
Example Hand #5
Hero is on the button with:
The small blind is a Whale and the big blind is a TAGfish
Hero should RAISE
! 7
Once again we have a spot here with a far from perfect hand but with the right kind of players in the blinds.
As we know, the Whale in the small blind will probably call us a huge amount of the time. And the TAGfish in the
big blind will let his hand go frequently without much of a fight.
Therefore, in the long run I definitely expect to be able to turn a weak suited king like this into a winner.
If we hit a king on the flop we can value bet and expect to get called by plenty of worse hands. Remember that
rec players don’t have a fold button. They are typically calling if they catch any piece of the flop (any pair and any
draw).
We will also occasionally make a really big hand like a flush or trips and possibly get some big action as well.
Many of my biggest winning hands over the years against the fish have not been with the hands that you might
expect like AA or KK.
On the contrary, they have been with suited trashy hands like this where I got involved with a bad player,
managed to hit something and got paid off big.
This is about creating new profit sources at the poker table based on playing the player instead of your cards.
Most regs just pass up on clearly +EV situations like this because they are just robotically playing their cards.
The biggest winners are paying attention to the details though. They also know where the money comes from in
this game, the recs. Therefore, they will do whatever it takes to get involved in more hands with them.
! 8
Battling the Aggressive Regs
So as we just saw, you can and should be stealing the blinds from the bad regs and the fish like crazy. Both for
different reasons. But both are highly profitable nonetheless.
What about versus the good regs though? Well as you will see repeatedly throughout this book, the story is very
different versus them.
Good regs don’t have such glaring leaks in their game and therefore they don’t give away their money as easily
as the bad regs and fish do.
More specifically, while it is possible to gain an edge on them, you will never “crush” them like you can versus
the other player types. They just don’t make enough mistakes for this to be possible.
Luckily the bad regs and fish still outnumber the good regs by a considerable margin at the lower stakes though.
This is especially the case if you are table selecting effectively (big section on that near the end of this book).
But sometimes you will still be forced to play pots against the good regs and so you need to have a playbook
against them as well.
The good thing about the micros though is that all regs have weaknesses and the TAGs and LAGs are no
different. As we noted above they are often too aggressive in key spots.
Knowing this, there are several ways to steal their blinds more effectively. It requires a very different strategy
though.
! 9
Narrow Your Range
First things first, you are going to have to narrow your range considerably. The better regs will only fold their
blinds versus a steal attempt 60% or 70% of the time.
The good regs will also typically 3Bet quite a bit more often as well. And their range will be a lot wider than just
strong premium hands.
So when a good player gets on your left you simply have to respect this. If you try to open raise from late
position with a 50% range, they will punish you for it again and again.
Therefore, when I see a couple of TAGs or LAGs in the blinds I will raise from a steal seat with considerably less
hands than versus the bad regs or recs. Roughly 30% of hands.

Here is a rough visual representation of what a 30% range looks like:
In fact, if they are clearly not folding very often at all and they have a high 3Bet% (10+), then don’t be afraid to
narrow your range even further than this, the top 20% of hands or even less.
The reason why we want to restrict our opening range like this is because it will give us a much stronger average
hand when we are called or 3Bet by them.
! 1
This will give us a lot more options to fight back preflop or postflop. If on the other hand our range is full of crap
like:
then our options will be much more limited.
So the bottom line is that versus the good aggressive regs you simply have to tone it down considerably when
you are in a steal position. They will call you or play back at you much more often than the other player types.
But some people choose to get their ego involved in a situation like this and “go to war” with the good reg
instead.
This is almost always a bad idea for a few reasons:
• Trying to outplay a good player who has direct position on you is an uphill battle that you aren’t very likely to
win in the long run.
• And even more importantly, you are distracting yourself from the main reason why you are at the table in the
first place, the fish!
Look, having a good reg on your immediate left is never a fun position to be in. And furthermore, there really is
no hard counter or solid strategy to beat it.
! 2
This is why if there isn’t a clear soft spot at the table, then I will often just pick up and move to a different table.
Some battles in poker simply aren’t worth fighting and getting your ego involved in this game is a recipe for
disaster.
But don’t worry, it isn’t all bad. Even though we are forced to tighten up our opening range considerably against
the better regs, we can still find some spots to outplay them as well. I will have more on that soon in the 3Bet
and 4Bet sections.
Example Hand #6
The small blind is a TAG and the big blind is a LAG
Hero should FOLD
Let’s use the exact same hand from the previous example to help illustrate this point further. With two good
aggressive regs in the blinds I would choose NOT to open this time.
I would just fold.
! 3
The reason why is because I expect to get called or 3Bet frequently by these two player types. And the problem
with the old K2s is that it plays pretty badly in either scenario.
First off, we can’t call a 3Bet with a hand this weak even though we are in position and even though we know
that they are frequently re-raising us light. Our equity is just too poor.
Equity versus a 10% 3Bet range:
And even if they just flat call us, our hand will also be difficult to play after the flop. There just aren’t very many
ways to make a big hand with K2s.
I also expect them to flat preflop with several better kings like KQ, KJ and KT. This puts us in a dangerous
reverse implied odds situation if we hit top pair.
Lastly, and most importantly, we can’t expect to take down a bunch of easy pots with a simple CBet like we will
against the bad regs. The better regs will play back by floating or raising a lot more often.
So for all of these reasons I will choose to simply remove a hand like this from my steal range when I see two
good regs in the blinds.
! 4
Example Hand #7
Hero is in MP with:
The button is a LAG and both blinds are TAGs
Hero should FOLD
Here is another situation where I will tighten up my range once again just because of who is left to act behind
me.
This hand is a standard raise for me from middle position most of the time and especially with bad regs or fish
left to act.
But with 3 good regs left to act behind me I would rather let this one go this time. The reason why is because I
expect to get called or played back at a lot.
This is especially the case with a loose aggressive player on the button. The chances of him at least calling here
are high. Good players are much more likely to understand the power of position than bad regs or rec players.
Versus a button 3Bet we won’t be able to continue with this hand out of position. And even when they just call,
we should expect the better regs like this to play back at us after the flop a lot more often.
! 5
Now an important point to note here is that I would very rarely ever play at a table like this in the first place. This
is an absolutely nightmarish situation to be in with 3 good regs on our immediate left.
Even if there is a big fish at the table, this will severely limit our ability to get in pots with them. I expect the better
regs to notice that we are trying to isolate the rec and 3Bet us even lighter than normal.
And I know this because I would be doing the exact same thing to them!
Like I mentioned before, it is impossible to avoid the good aggressive regs in today’s micro stakes games. They
will show up at your tables sometimes even at the lowest limits.
What you can do though is pick your battles wisely. There really is no reason to ever play at a table like this
when there are so many others to choose from.
2. Picking up the Easy Money Before the Flop

Another play that I have used with great success over the years is the isolation raise. What I mean by this is
punishing the limpers by raising them frequently with a wide range of hands.
Now limping isn’t very common anymore online except for the very lowest stakes. However, limping is still very
common in small stakes live games and so it is important that you know how to deal with it effectively.
I consider limpers (someone who just called the blind preflop) to essentially be free money. And you should too.
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Here’s why:
When I see somebody limp into the pot this tells me that they don’t have a lot of confidence in their hand.
Otherwise, they would have made a raise and taken control of the pot.
So we can take advantage of this weakness by raising them up with a wide variety of hands. Due to the power of
initiative in poker we will often get a fold either preflop or on the flop.
It’s like picking up free money.
The Whales in particular like to limp into the pot with a ton of different hands. The bad regs will also do this from
time to time as well.
So when they limp into the pot I will raise them up with that same “anything remotely playable” range that we
talked about above, roughly the top 50% of hands. You want to be doing this especially when you are on the
button or the cutoff.
It is also a good idea to have a quick look at who is on your left first like we just discussed. You don’t want to be
isolating a fish super wide if there are a couple of aggro regs behind waiting to re-pop you light.
You ideally want passive bad regs in the blinds who will let you just keep isolating the recs over and over again
unless they happen to wake up with a huge hand.
! 7
Example Hand #8
A Whale limps in from EP
Hero should RAISE
Now I know what you might be thinking. This is a really bad hand! And yes, it absolutely is. Not exactly a
premium holding.
But given the player type and the action in the hand we should raise here almost 100% of the time (assuming no
aggressive regs in the blinds).
The reason why is because we are seated at the best position at the table and a bad player has already shown
weakness by limping into the pot.
With a simple isolation raise here we will frequently take it down preflop uncontested. This is 2.5bb in free money
(limp + small bind + big blind).
But rec players love to limp/call as well. What do we do then?

Well, the basic math tells us that with a random hand 2 out of 3 times you won’t even flop a pair. So we know
that most of the time they will have very little to call our CBet with.
But it is also important to remember that even if we do get some action we can always still win the pot the old
fashioned way sometimes too by making the best hand.
It’s not like Q4s doesn’t have any value at all. We can make top pair or a flush. Either of these is very likely to be
the best hand against a rec player’s incredibly wide range.
This is a good example of a spot that many regs in today’s games choose to pass up on. That is, they will simply
fold and wait for a better hand.
But this is just robotically clicking buttons without really thinking deeper about the situation. There is a huge
hidden profit source here.
I have quite literally made a career out of isolating bad players with so called “trash” hands like this and getting
their money before all of the other regs get a chance to.
A very easy way to start improving your winrate immediately is to start finding more reasons to get involved with
the rec players at every opportunity.
! 9
Example Hand #9
A Whale limps in MP
Hero is in the big blind with:
Hero should RAISE
This is another situation where we should make an isolation raise.
While our hand is once again far from perfect and we are out of position this time as well, there is simply a
higher EV in raising and taking control of the pot rather than just checking it through and hoping that we hit
something.
By raising instead of checking we give ourselves a good chance of simply taking down the pot right now. This is
definitely a fine result with J8s out of position.
But even if the rec player decides to call our raise, we have put him on notice that we are the ones in control
here. This means that our bet on the flop will get a lot more credit than if we just checked preflop and then lead
out.

And lastly, even though J8 suited is by no means a great hand, it still has an ability to make some strong hands
like a straight, two pair and a flush as well. So once again, we are not just raising with any two cards here. Our
hand has some equity.
In fact, as you will see throughout this entire book, any time we are making a play at the pot we will always leave
ourselves some outs or ways to win. Pure bluffing with terrible equity just rarely makes any sense in poker.
3. Crushing the Regs in 3Bet Pots

Another area before the flop where you can turn a huge profit at the micros is in 3Bet pots.
As you move up the stakes you will notice more and more re-raising going on. Sometimes they will 3Bet you and
sometimes you will be the one 3Betting them.
It is so prevalent that it basically becomes this little game within the game that is always going on. And it is very
important that you at least breakeven in these situations.
But realistically you should be able to crush the regs in this area, especially the Nits and TAGfish. This is
because they make one key mistake over and over again and there is a very simple counter to it.
Preying on the Bad Regs
The bad regs (Nits and TAGfish) tend to play a very weak game. By this I mean that they give up far too easily in
many common spots.
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Versus 3Bets is one of them. It is not uncommon to see these player types folding to 80% or 90% of 3Bets which
is far too much and very easily exploitable.
So when I see a Nit or a TAGfish open the pot from late position in particular (where their range is at it’s widest),
then I will open up my 3Betting range against them considerably.
Here is an example of the range that I might 3Bet them with:
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The reason why I will 3Bet them with a range this wide is because they will often fold everything that is not a
premium hand or close to it.
More specifically this means that they will only continue with:
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AK and AQ.
Also, we need to remember that from late position most Nits and TAGfish will be attempting to steal the blinds
with a 30% range these days, sometimes even higher. Once again a visual will help put this in perspective.
! 3
If they are only going to call our 3Bet (or 4Bet us) with the hands marked in yellow, then it really doesn’t take any
kind of a math genius to see just how profitable this strategy will be.
The majority of the time when we 3Bet they will fold and we will take down the pot uncontested. This means that
we win their original 2x or 3x open + the blinds without even needing to see a flop.
So this is another play which has the potential to drastically increase your winrate at the micros if you can even
find one more spot every 100 hands to successfully pull it off.
A Few Notes About This Strategy
1) It is important not to go overboard
When you see somebody folding to 3Bets 80% or 90% of the time, it can be tempting to want to just 3Bet them
with any two cards.
However, like with a lot of the strategies in this book, the real key is doing them in moderation. You want to make
this play just often enough to take advantage of their glaring weakness, but not often enough to alert them about
it.
The bad regs at the lower stakes have many big leaks in their game like this. Some of them are not far removed
from being total beginners in fact.
But it is important to remember that they aren’t stupid either. If you start 3Betting them every single time they
open the pot, they are eventually going to realize that something is up and start making adjustments.
We don’t want them to adjust. We want to just continue taking easy pots from them again and again.
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2) Pay attention to where they raised from
The action in the hand is extremely important with this play. You need to remember that your opponent’s open
raising range from EP or MP will not be anywhere near as wide as it is from LP.
Therefore, when they open from EP or MP, my 3Betting range will be nowhere near as wide as the above.
3) The opposite strategy applies too!
And one last thing to keep in mind is that since these players fold so much to 3Bets, the exact opposite
exploitative strategy comes into play as well.
That is, you should often just flat call versus their raise with your premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT and AK)
like we saw in example #1.
The reason why is that there is a much higher long term EV in seeing a flop with a huge hand rather than forcing
them to fold preflop and taking down a tiny pot.
If you have a really big hand and a bad reg has already opened the pot, then you should consider slowplaying it
especially if you are in position.
! 5
Example Hand #10
Nit villain raises from the button
Hero is in the the small blind with:
Hero should 3BET
This is a common spot where I will frequently make a 3Bet and expect to take it down a lot. Keep in mind that it
is important to know for sure that this is indeed one of those weaker regs who folds to 3Bets too much though.
If you play online and use a HUD, then just refer to the Fold to 3Bet% stat. Make sure you have 100 hands or
more on the person first though.
But you can usually figure this out even quicker by simply observing what type of player it is. After playing
millions of hands of poker there is one consistently true rule of thumb that I have seen again and again.
If they play passively in one particular situation, they will more than likely play passively in all
situations as well.
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So you want to pay attention for any of the following signs of passive play.
• Limp/fold preflop
• Give up frequently postflop, don’t fight for pots
• Always have a strong hand at showdown, no bluffs
And so on and so forth.
These are all clear signs of weak or passive play. These are the kind of players that try to avoid conflict at the
poker tables unless they have a big hand.
This is why this play works so well against them. It specifically attacks one of their biggest weaknesses.
Also big hands just don’t come around very often in poker. So by the time they finally wake up with their AA or
KK we have stolen so many pots from them that it doesn’t even matter.
Example Hand #11
TAGfish villain raises from the cutoff
Hero is in the big blind with:
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Hero should 3BET
This is another situation where 3Betting is going to show a bigger profit in the long run than simply calling. In
other words, 3Betting is the great play and calling is the average play.
Here’s why:
When we 3Bet in this spot against a weak opponent, we know that we will frequently take down the 2x or 3x
open + blinds uncontested.
Furthermore, if villain does happen to call, we will often be able to take down the pot on the flop with a simple
CBet.
How about when we just flat preflop though? Well, sometimes we will hit a set and win a decent sized pot. But
this is really wishful thinking. The reason why is because we are only going to flop our set 1 out of every 8.5
times.
This means that the vast majority of the time we will be staring at a board full of overcards with our baby pair.
And to make things even worse, we will have to play the entire hand out of position!
Furthermore, something that many people forget here is that even when we do hit our set, there is absolutely
zero guarantee that we will win any kind of a substantial pot.
Remember how wide our opponent’s range is when they open from a steal seat? Often 30% of hands.
Sometimes even more. This means that most of the time on the flop they are going to have very little, a weak
pair or a draw at best.

It is important to realize that your implied odds are very low when your opponent opens from LP. You are better
off set-mining when they open from EP or MP. They will have a much tighter range from these positions.
Therefore, you will have a much better chance of getting paid off.
This is why in a late position battle like this you should often try to give yourself more ways to win the pot. Versus
the weaker regs this is easily accomplished by 3Betting them.
Example Hand #12
Nit villain raises from MP
Hero should CALL
Let’s look at a slightly different situation now with everybody’s favorite hand, jacks.
In this spot a bad reg has opened from MP. Now as we just mentioned, we need to respect their range quite a bit
more when they open from one of these positions.
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Still, it is very likely that we are ahead in this situation. After all, pocket jacks is one of the best hands that you
can possibly be dealt in the game.
But poker is not all about math as we saw before. The more important question here is which decision in this
particular spot has more long term value, 3Betting or flat calling.
Even though we are probably well ahead of our opponent’s range, flat calling is indeed the superior play here.
The reason why is because we already know that this type of player is likely to fold a large portion of their range
when we 3Bet. This really sucks when we have such a powerful hand. We want to keep all of those lower pairs
in particular involved in the hand.
And yes I know what you might be thinking, “But an ace, king or a queen ALWAYS comes on the flop.” Well first
off, not always. One or more of these cards will show up about 50% of the time.
But more importantly, just because there is an overcard on the board does not necessarily mean that our
opponent actually hit that card.
And furthermore, we have that wonderful little thing called position throughout the hand. This allows us to be in
control of the pot at all times. We get to decide how big of a pot we want to play, when to value bet, bluff or
simply fold.
Bonus Hidden EV:
Lastly, flatting in LP with a premium hand like this can really be a great play in today’s games when there
happens to be an aggressive reg left to act in the blinds.
! 0
They will often pounce on this opportunity to put in the light 3Bet squeeze. This allows us to spring the trap and
get the absolute maximum amount of money in the middle with a very powerful hand.
The bottom line is this. Always be acutely aware of who is seated around you at the poker table before you make
any decision. This is how you find the great play on a consistent basis.
4. How to Defend Against 3Bets Effectively

Learning how to defend against 3Bets effectively at the lower limits is just as important as 3Betting itself. And
once again there is a fine balance that you have to find.
We don’t want to become one of those easily exploitable regs like we just talked about who fold to 3Bets way too
much.
But we also don’t want to just mindlessly call 3Bets with no plan on how to win the pot either. Because this is an
even faster way to lose money!
The real key to a successful 3Bet defending strategy is knowing when to call and when to 4Bet. And even more
importantly, having a clear plan of attack for after the flop as well.
Now of course nearly everything in poker is infinitely easier to do while in position. So I would certainly suggest
defending wider when you are in position as a default strategy.
This means that your calling range when you are in position should always be a little bit wider than when you are
out of position.

What Should Your 3Bet Calling Range Be?
So what range of hands should we actually defend against a 3Bet with then? Well, it depends a lot on our
position but even more importantly on the player type.
We want to know exactly how wide their range is when they 3Bet us. This is where your observational skills will
come into play if you play live.
How active have they been lately? Have you seen them 3Betting frequently before? What hands have they
shown up with when they 3Bet?
If you play online then you can just refer to the 3Bet% stat on your HUD. Most Nits and TAGfish will have a 3Bet
of somewhere around 5% at the most.
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Here is an example of a 5% 3Bet range once again:
However, many of the TAGs, LAGs and Maniacs at these stakes will 3Bet you with a much wider range of 8%,
10% or even higher.

Here is an example of a 10% 3Bet range:
As you can see there are a lot more weak pairs, broadways and even purely speculative hands like suited
connectors in this range.
So clearly, we are going to need a very different strategy versus these two ranges. Also, keep in mind that in
some cases we will also be 4Betting. More on that in the next section.

Legend:
IP = In position
OOP = Out of position
S = Suited only
My calling range versus a 5% 3Bet when IP:
AK, AQ, AJs, KQs and 66+
I will keep it relatively tight versus a 5% 3Bet even when I am in position due to how strong their range is. It
doesn’t matter what the player type is, getting somebody to fold their aces or kings isn’t easy!
With that said though, there are still many more combos of hands like AK and AQ in their range which will miss
the flop 2 out of 3 times. I expect to be able to outplay a lot of my opponents in position, especially the bad regs.
My calling range versus a 5% 3Bet when OOP:
AK, AQ and 88+
When I am out of position I will tighten up my calling range even more because it will be a lot harder to move
somebody off of a strong hand while having to act first on every street.
Also, another key drawback to being OOP is that it is much more difficult to extract full value when we finally do
hit our hand.
! 5
My calling range versus a 10% 3Bet when IP:
AK, AQ, AJ, ATs, A9s, KQ, QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s, 22+
I will defend a lot more often versus a 10% 3Bet because of how much wider their range is. They are 3Betting us
light frequently and therefore I will take advantage of this by calling a lot wider as well.
I will be looking to use my position in order to outplay them after the flop on many different board textures.
My calling range versus a 10% 3Bet when OOP:
AK, AQ, AJs, ATs, KQs, 66+
Even though I know they will be 3Betting me wide I have to tighten up my calling range when OOP a little bit.
And this is for all of the same reasons that we just discussed above.
It is just simply much harder to outplay someone when you have to act first on every single street. Also, it is
much more difficult to get paid off when we actually do make a hand.

Example Hand #13
Hero raises from MP with:
A Nit in the big blind 3Bets
Hero should CALL
This hand is a little bit close. We already know how strong of a range some Nits can have when they 3Bet.
Therefore, there is a decent chance that we are a mathematical underdog at the moment.
But given the fact that we are in position against a weaker reg we can probably turn this into a +EV call. And we
will accomplish this by making some plays at the pot after the flop even when we miss.
If you are not prepared to make a few light calls and bluffs postflop then you would be better off folding preflop
here. There will be plenty of examples later on showing you exactly how to float and bluff/raise on various flops.

Example Hand #14
A TAG on the button 3Bets
Hero should FOLD
Even though we know that this player’s range is going to be very wide here, I still prefer a fold in this situation.
The reason why is because it is going to be very difficult to win the pot after the flop with a small pair OOP
versus a good player.
Unless we happen to flop a set (only happens 1 in 8.5 times), we are likely to be looking at a board full of
overcards. This will make it very difficult to make any plays at the pot especially when OOP.
Sometimes the smart money in poker is knowing when NOT to fight back. This is one of those spots where it is
going to be difficult to turn a profit. The great play is simply folding and cutting your losses now.
! 8
5. How to Dominate 4Bet Pots

Truthfully though, one of the best counters to a 3Bet is actually just to 4Bet them. This is one of my biggest
money-making plays in recent years because it lays the hammer down especially on the aggressive regs.
The beautiful thing about poker is that there is always a counter to any style of play. If they are going to 3Bet you
wide, then you can just go ahead and 4Bet them wide as well.
However, it is important not to get too ahead of ourselves here. Remember that a 4Bet tends to commit nearly
1/4 of our stack. So it is very important that we don’t just go randomly 4Betting people whenever we feel like it.
As we just discussed above, many of the weak regs (Nits and TAGfish) that you will find at the lower stakes are
3Betting with a strong range. Therefore it would be a really bad idea to start 4Betting them light a lot.
In fact, against these kinds of players there really is no secret 4Betting strategy here. Your hands are completely
tied. You really should only be 4Betting them for value with strong premium hands.
The same thing goes for the rec players but for different reasons. Since we have such a massive skill advantage
against them, unless we have an absolutely huge hand it is better to just keep the pot small and outplay them
after the flop.
So you can probably guess by now that we will be 4Betting most frequently versus the good regs, TAGs and
LAGs. These are the players who are most likely to be 3Betting you with a wide range and won’t be able to stand
a re-raise.
Now the key to this strategy is to 4Bet them with all of our big value hands but also to throw in some bluffs on
occasion as well. I like to employ a roughly 2/1 ratio of value hands to bluffs.

This means that roughly 1 out of every 3 times that I 4Bet them, it will be a bluff. 2 out of 3 times though, I have a
monster.
This makes it very difficult for them to find an effective counter strategy. They know that we have bluffs in our
range but they also know that they are going to get stung more often than not.
This in turn will cause them to think twice about 3Betting us light in the future. There are just too many other regs
out there who are easier targets for them.
Here is my 4Bet range versus a TAG or LAG with a high 3Bet%:
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, A5s, A4s, A3s
So we have all of the usual big premium hands in this range. I won’t always 4Bet all of these hands. Sometimes I
will just flat depending on the situation and in order to mix things up. But for the most part, I am 4Betting all of
them for value.
But then there is also a grouping of small suited aces in this range as well. These are the bluff hands. There are
a couple of reasons why I choose them in particular.
Firstly, they act as good blockers versus other ace hands. When we have an ace in our hand it just makes it
statistically less likely that our opponent also has one.
Secondly, small suited aces tend to have some decent equity (roughly 30%) versus big pairs like KK, QQ, JJ or
TT. Not only can they make top pair against these hands but also the nut flush and the wheel straight.
So this gives us a better chance of simply “getting lucky” sometimes which is always a good thing.

Lastly, it should be noted that position isn’t really that important when 4Betting because most of the time I expect
the hand to end right there.
Let’s look at an example.
Example Hand #15
Hero opens from the cutoff with:
TAG villain 3Bets from the button
Hero should 4Bet
This is a spot where we don’t really want to be calling out of position. Our hand is simply too weak and playing
OOP versus a good player sucks.
However, instead of just folding there is considerable value here in 4Betting light versus this player once in a
while.
The reason why is because we know that an aggressive TAG like this is likely to be 3Betting us very wide here in
a button versus cutoff situation.
! 1
The better regs are often fully aware that our range is going to be wide from a steal seat. Therefore, they will
adjust by widening their 3Betting range especially when IP.
But since we know this as well, then we can take it to the next level and make the great play of widening our
4Betting range.
This play puts all of the pressure back on our opponent to show up with a real hand. And since they know that
most of the time we will actually have the goods here, it makes it very difficult for them to call us or shove all the
money in.
They know that they are going to get snap called by hands like AA, KK, QQ or AK plenty of the time. Find a spot
like this to outplay a good reg preflop even just once a session and you have yourself a very nice new profit
source.
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The Flop Strategy Playbook

Alright let’s finally get into the heart of my strategies for massive success at the micro stakes. Because the truth
is, it is really hard to find any truly big edges preflop anymore.
While many of the strategies that I discussed above such as blind stealing against the right opponents, isolating
the fish wide and 3Betting/4Betting in the right spots will certainly help your winrate, they are unlikely to move
the needle in a big, big way.
And this is because preflop No Limit Hold’em is a very simple game. After all, you really only have two cards to
play. Therefore it is actually pretty hard for your opponents to make any really big mistakes.
In fact even if they manage to completely butcher a hand, they almost always still have some sort of reasonable
equity.
For example:
85 suited all in preflop versus AK offsuit still has nearly 40% equity:
! 3
Postflop is a totally different story though. You can regularly get people to call you with much worse odds (i.e.
10% or 20% equity) or even drawing completely dead.
This is why postflop is where the elite players with the biggest winrates are truly crushing their opponents.
One of the most important things to remember about postflop poker is this:
Most of the time nobody really has much of anything.
In fact as I mentioned before, a random hand only has a 1 in 3 chance of flopping a pair. And your chances of
flopping two pair or better are far worse.
So this is where the best players really get ahead in poker. They know that their opponents often don’t have
much. And so they find ways to win more of all those small pots that nobody really wants to fight for.
Because you see, anybody can play like a pro when they have a full house or a straight. It’s really not rocket
science. But the reality is that these hands are extremely rare. They aren’t what poker is really about.
It is all those smaller pots where somebody has a weak draw and the other guy has bottom pair or ace high that
are much more common. And winning more than your fair share of these pots is the very heart of next level
poker.
The postflop plays that I am going to teach you in this book all revolve around this central idea of winning more
pots without a strong hand.
! 4
5. Betting the Flop Like a Pro

The flop is the most important street of all in No Limit Hold’em because this is where you plan out your strategy
for the entire hand. More specifically this is where I am going to develop my exact line of attack for how to win
the pot.
There are many different lines that we can take to reach our goal of winning the pot. It depends primarily on the
action in the hand so far and as always, who the opponent is.
If I am the preflop raiser, as I often will be, then the default strategy is pretty simple. I am just going to make a
continuation bet (CBet) on most flops and look to take it down right then and there.
This is indeed the strategy that I will be using most of the time versus the bad regs. This is because most Nits
and TAGfish will give up too often if they miss the flop.
You will still regularly see weaker regs at the lower limits with a Fold to Flop CBet of 70%, 80% or sometimes
even higher.
From a purely mathematical perspective you can show an easy profit against these types of players by simply
hammering on them with CBet after CBet.
Versus the recs the strategy is fairly similar. Even though I know they won’t fold anywhere near as often I will still
be firing a CBet most of the time.
The key thing to remember here is that since our CBet size will only be 50% or 60% of the pot, mathematically
we only need to get folds about 1 in 3 times in order to turn a profit. Even the craziest fish out there tend to fold
that often.
! 5
The other thing to note is that even though the recs won’t fold that often, a lot of their calling range is really weak
hands, sometimes even nothing at all.
This means that our ace high or king high will often actually still be the best hand against them. So our CBet isn’t
necessarily even a bluff at all!
Lastly, versus the good regs there is a lot more thinking and planning involved. The key will be to mix up our play
and constantly give them different looks.
This way they can never put us on an exact hand and we can setup various plays to push them out of the pot on
future streets.
Let’s discuss flop strategy step by step starting with your most common opponent at the micros, the bad regs.
Breaking the Nits on the Flop
As we know the main weakness of the bad regs is weak play. This means that they will frequently back down
and “look for a better spot” if they don’t have a really strong hand.
So our main goal on the flop will be to exploit this leak of theirs by simply making a CBet against them frequently.
And even if we can’t make them fold right now this bet helps set up another CBet on the turn which will often be
enough to make them lay it down.
But even though we will be betting the flop a lot against the bad regs, there are still a few specific board textures
that we should be a little bit more cautious on. Let’s check out some examples.
! 6
Example Hand #16
Hero raises from EP with:
Nit villain calls from the button
Flop:
Hero should CBET
This is a situation where I am going to make a CBet very frequently. The reason why is because many Nits will
fold a majority of the time even on a totally dry and nondescript board like this.
This allows us to turn an immediate, and quite frankly huge profit, by making a typical 50% or 60% of the pot
CBet. It simply does not make any sense to lay off the gas pedal versus opponents like this who are literally just
giving away their money.
! 7
Also, as I will discuss in the turn and river sections, there are numerous ways to make these players fold later on
as well so it isn’t the end of the world if we get called here on the flop.
Pressure is simply the name of the game versus the weaker regs like this. Let’s look at another example.
Example Hand #17
TAGfish villain calls from the cutoff
Flop:
Hero should CHECK

Now while we want to be CBetting lots of flops against the weaker regs, there are still a few situations where it is
a better idea not to get involved. This hand is a good example of that.
The reason why I prefer to check here instead of CBetting is because the flop is extremely wet and coordinated.
It also hits a ton of hands in their range.
For instance, several of their pocket pairs have a set (99, 88 and 77). And a few of their other pairs like 66 and
TT have an open ended straight draw.
There are also numerous ways for them to have flopped a flush draw, a pair and a flush draw or even two pair.
In contrast with the last example, this board is the absolute definition of an “action flop.” We just aren’t going to
get many folds on a board like this no matter who the opponent is.
And what’s worse is that there aren’t very many ways for us to actually improve here either. There are really only
two cards remaining in the deck that are going to make us happy on the turn:
If we had a hand like AK by comparison, then we would be 3 times as likely to improve to the best hand later on
(3 aces and 3 kings left in the deck = 6 outs).
! 9
It would be even better though to have a hand that is also drawing to the nuts in some way.
For instance:
Any Q or J likely puts us in the lead. And if a T falls on the turn then we make the nut straight as well. This gives
us 10 total outs.
It is very important that you learn to analyze boards like this in order to understand your true equity.
The bottom line though is that on highly coordinated wet flops like this where we are OOP with a hand that has
very little chance of improving, it is often a good idea to just give up on the pot.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to win every hand at the poker tables. Even versus a player like this who folds a
lot, it is often going to be too difficult to turn a profit.
Making the Fish Pay
Making the right play versus the recreational players on the flop is usually pretty straightforward as well.
However, it is still vitally important that you understand the basic strategy.

As I already mentioned, when you miss the flop against a rec player you should still frequently make a CBet.
They will usually fold often enough for us to turn a profit.
It is important to understand how the fish think about poker though. Their only real concern is their own hand and
how pretty it looks to them. In most cases they aren’t even thinking about what you can have at all.
So what this means is that if you have a value hand (a hand that is likely to be the best), then you should be
betting it 100% of the time versus them.
And this means hands as weak as ace high and king high as well. Remember that they will have no pair no draw
most of the time. Even though we have nothing as well, we are still ahead.
Furthermore, you should also be betting larger amounts with your big value hands (top pair or better) as I
discussed thoroughly in my first book.
By big I mean 80%-100% of the pot. And if there is a specific history in play between the two of you, then you
can even work in some over-bets as well.
You don’t need to be afraid of “scaring them out of the pot” with a big bet. If they don’t have anything, then they
are simply going to fold.
There is nothing you can do about it. This is just how poker works. Two people need to have something in order
for big pots to happen in this game.
But fish also love to call if they caught ANY piece of the board. This is why you can make a small fortune by
absolutely pounding on them in these situations with your big value hands.
In fact, one of the biggest “secrets to my success” at the micros over the years is that I make the fish pay the
absolute maximum every single time.
I don’t let them off the hook by making small bets, or even worse, trying to trap them like most of the other regs
do. And neither should you.
Example Hand #18
Whale villain calls from the small blind
Flop:
Villain checks
Hero should CBET
This is a situation against a rec player where I will be making a CBet basically every single time. Let’s do a bit of
range analysis to really understand why.
A Whale recreational player will often be calling preflop with half of the deck. Here is a visual representation of
what the top 50% of hands might look like.
So even though our hand did not connect with this flop in any kind of meaningful way, there are still many
scenarios where we are still ahead.
Our ace high is still winning versus many other random ace highs, king highs, queen highs, draws and on and
on.
In fact if we just throw villain’s entire range into the equity calculator we can cut out any guesswork and see
exactly where we stand:
So yes, we are indeed the favorite right now on this flop even though we have no pair and no draw! Not a huge
favorite but a favorite nonetheless.
Therefore, our CBet (even though we technically have nothing) is actually for value. It is not a bluff.
It is very important to remember this when playing against the rec players. Since their range is so wide, our
value betting range needs to be wider as well.
We don’t need to wait for the nuts before getting involved with them. And in a simple flop spot like this we should
just go ahead and make the CBet very close to 100% of the time.
It is almost always going to be mathematically profitable. And don’t worry if you get called. There are many more
ways to win the pot on later streets as well.
Example Hand #19
Hero raises in MP with:
Maniac villain calls in LP
Flop:
Hero should CHECK/RAISE
In this situation we raised preflop with a strong premium hand and got called by a Maniac rec player in late
position. We catch a very favorable flop for our hand with no overcards at all.
What should hero do here?
Well, this is a bit of a tricky situation. It is tricky because it is one of those spots where there is an obvious
average play and a hidden great play.
As we just discussed, we should often just go ahead and make a CBet against the recs. They will be calling with
a huge range preflop, often as much as 50% of hands. So when we have a strong overpair the standard play is
clearly just to bet for value.
But is there a better play in this particular situation against this particular opponent? Yes.
We have to remember that a Maniac rec is one of the most highly aggressive player types. If we check it over to
him and show weakness, he is almost certainly going to take a stab at the pot no matter what he has.
This allows us to spring the trap with a check/raise and get the maximum amount of money in the middle on the
flop when we very likely have the best hand.
As you can see below, we are a big favorite against villain’s “half the deck” range:
As I mentioned before, getting the absolute maximum value out of the recreational players at the micros has
been a huge key to my success.
You need to always be thinking about how to extract the most out of them because these kinds of players and
these situations do not come around very often.
The great play of check/raising the flop in this hand is very player specific. I would never do this against a Whale
rec player. The reason why is because they are not aggressive players.
They are much more likely to simply check back on the flop which is a disaster because then we don’t start
building the pot at all!
So I would always just go ahead and make the standard CBet in order to make sure that some money starts
going in the middle.
Always think a bit deeper about the player type and the situation before you make any decision in poker. Most
players at the lower limits have huge glaring weaknesses (too passive or too aggressive).
The great play will often center around finding the best counter to this. Usually this is betting versus the passive
players and trapping the aggro ones.
Staying in Control Versus the Good Regs
Things aren’t always quite so simple against the good regs though. This is because they typically don’t have all
of the easily exploitable weaknesses that the bad regs and the recs have.
So versus the TAGs and LAGs I will use a variety of different strategies on the flop in order to win the pot. But
there is a another purpose here which is to constantly keep them guessing about my range in all situations.
This isn’t something that you need to bother with versus most of your opponents at the micros. This is because
they aren’t paying any attention to the different lines that you take.
However, learning how to balance your ranges does become more important as you move up the stakes and
face better competition who will start to take notice of this.
So for instance, instead of always CBetting my strong hands like overpairs, top pairs and sets I will mix in some
check/calls or check/raises with these hands on occasion versus the good regs as well. I will do the exact same
thing with my bluff hands.
With all of that said, we will also be looking to exploit the major weakness of many good regs at the lower stakes
which is being too aggressive.
Example Hand #20
TAG villain calls from the big blind

Flop:
Villain checks
Hero should CBET or CHECK
In this situation we have a fairly dry flop in position against a good reg. Let’s consider our opponent’s range here
first.
When a TAG player flats us out of the big blind like this it can mean a lot of different things. In today’s games the
better players at the lower stakes have learned to stop folding their blinds so easily.
This is mostly due to the rise in popularity of smaller open raising sizes online like 2x or 2.5x and wider stealing
ranges as well. So in today’s games you need to be defending your blinds more often.
But you can’t just 3Bet every time somebody tries to steal your blinds or the better players will catch on and
realize that your range is too wide. This in turn will make you an easy light 4Bet target.
So the answer is to start mixing in some flat calls along with your 3Bets when defending your blinds.
So in the past when I got called from the blinds by a reg this usually meant a set-mining attempt with a small or
mid pair (22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99).
Sometimes they would also call with a strong ace (AQ, AJ) or a good pair (TT, JJ) that they didn’t feel like
3Betting with.
However, these days when a good reg flats me out of the blinds I will also add the following hands to their range:
Broadways: KQ, KJ, QJ.
Suited Aces: ATs, A9s, A8s
Suited Connectors: JTs, T9s, 98s
So with this in mind it is certainly possible that our opponent hit this board. He will have a J sometimes. He will
also have a few 8’s in his range and perhaps even an open ended straight draw with a hand like T9.
The other thing that has changed in recent years at the lower stakes is that the better regs won’t just auto-fold if
they miss the flop either.
In general good players like this will fold the flop much less often (40% or 50%). This means that they will float
our CBet lighter and sometimes bluff/raise as well.
So this is why it is important that we don’t just auto-CBet the flop here like we usually would against the weaker
regs and recs. We should look to mix in a few check/backs here as well.
This keeps our range more balanced and makes it much more difficult for a strong player to get a read on what
we are doing and exploit us.
Also, keep in mind that just because we check back the flop here on occasion does not mean that we are giving
up on the pot. Quite the opposite in fact. We will often be making a delayed CBet on later streets.
Also, another good thing about checking back here sometimes is that when you show weakness to a good reg,
they will often bluff at the pot on later streets.
Since we know this though, we can either choose to make a super light call down or even put in a bluff re-raise
on occasion ourselves.
This is why position is so important in poker. When you have it you are always in the driver’s seat.
Example Hand #21

LAG villain calls on the button
Flop:
Hero should CBET or CHECK/CALL
In this example we have everybody’s favorite spot, kings on an ace high flop OOP versus a loose aggressive
reg. Fun times!
This is actually a pretty easy situation though and it is also a great spot to use this particular player’s weakness
against him.
LAGs are well known for playing a lot of hands and playing them aggressively as well. So when this type of
player flats us preflop on the button I expect him to have a wide range of hands.
Everything from pocket pairs, suited connectors, broadways, suited aces and more. The important thing to
remember is that most of these hands missed this flop too.
That is, most of the time he does not have the ace.
However, if we check it to him on the flop an aggressive player like this is very likely to try and represent that ace
by making a bet. This is a great spot for us because we literally have the ultimate bluff catcher hand with KK
here.
We are way ahead of any pair that he can possibly have which is not an ace. And since there are virtually no
draws on this flop either, a lot of the time he will just be mindlessly bluffing at the pot with next to no equity at all.
So while you should go ahead and make the standard CBet here sometimes, you should also be on the lookout
for spots like this to exploit the major weakness of the better regs.
When there isn’t a ton of value to be gained by betting there is often plenty to be had by just giving them some
rope and letting them bluff away their money.
6. Floating Their CBets Like a Champion

One of the absolute best strategies in this entire playbook for beating up on the bad regs in particular is to float
them frequently on the flop. This means that you call their CBet with the intention of taking away the pot on a
later street.
This has arguably been my biggest profit source in micro stakes cash games in recent years. And the reason
why is actually pretty simple when you think about it.
You can’t win at poker by folding! You simply have to start taking some more pots away from the regs in order to
win big.
And even though there are going to be plenty of situations where the best option is definitely to fold (i.e. when
you have nothing at all). There will be many other occasions where a pot is certainly winnable if we are willing to
fight for it a little bit.

This is specifically the case when:
• We have position
• We have some sort of equity (to be explained more below)
The great thing about floating the bad regs at the lower stakes is that many of them still make it way too easy to
take the pot away from them. It’s literally like taking candy from a baby sometimes.
The reason why is that you will encounter many Nits and TAGfish at the lower stakes who have a wide gap
between their flop CBet% and their turn CBet%.
What this means in plain English is that they will frequently fire a bet on the flop but often they will give up on the
turn if their opponent is still around.
Therefore, a simple bet is often enough to take it down. Sometimes it is so predictable that our actual hand
becomes almost irrelevant.
Example Hand #22
TAGfish villain raises from EP
Hero calls from the button with:
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero should CALL
In this situation we choose to flat call in position preflop against one of the weaker regs, a TAGfish.
It is important to open up your preflop calling range a little bit versus these types of players especially when IP.
Because once again, you can’t beat the regs by folding all the time!

Versus the weaker regs in particular I know that I can outplay them often enough to turn a profit here. If I can hit
my hand, that’s great. But my plan is to try and take the pot away from them in many situations regardless of
this.
And this is one of them.
On this dry board we didn’t really flop that great and our opponent is going to make a CBet a large amount of the
time. What should we do?
Well, the most obvious play would be to just fold. We have no real pair or draw and our opponent is showing
aggression. But elite poker players know that there is a more profitable action here which is to float instead.
Here’s the thing:
We can’t call preflop with a hand like this and just give up every time we don’t hit a pair or a good draw. This is
losing poker since we won’t flop these very often and our opponent will CBet a lot.
So we are going to need to continue on some boards where we catch a small piece as well. And we did in fact
flop a little bit of equity in this hand. We have a backdoor flush draw to the nuts and two overs.
Another reason why I am going to float on this board is because it is very unlikely to have connected with our
opponent in any major way.
A fairly tight reg like this who opened in EP is going to have a range mostly consisting of pocket pairs,
broadways and big aces. Very few of these hands will connect with this board in any meaningful way.
And perhaps the most important point of all. What do weak players like this do on the turn when we call and they
have nothing?
That’s right, they give up.
Even if they do fire again on the turn there are still multiple ways that we can win the pot that I will discuss later
such as the double float, turn semi-bluff raise and river bluff.
Since we are in position in this hand (which is a huge, huge key by the way), it makes all of these separate lines
of attack much easier to successfully pull off.
If you want to start turning your winnings around at the lower stakes then hands like this are literally ground zero.
Remember how we talked about all those little pots before that nobody really wants? And how this is the heart of
winning poker?
Well this is exactly the type of hand that I was talking about. This is a very winnable spot in position versus a
weaker reg with some backdoor equity.
Start taking away a few more pots like this instead of just folding like everybody else, and watch your winrate
skyrocket.
Example Hand #23
Nit villain raises on the button
Hero calls from the big blind with:
Flop:
Hero checks
Villain CBets
Hero should CALL or RAISE
Let’s look at another spot here against a weak reg but this time we are out of position. Floating when you don’t
have position in the hand definitely makes things a bit more difficult.
This is because we can’t just wait for them to give up on the turn and then make the easy bet to take it down.
Instead we will have to act first which means that we don’t have any information on whether they are giving up
this time or they actually have something good.
While this definitely sucks, we still have to fight for some pots even when we are OOP. If not then we would be
better off just folding preflop with a speculative hand like this.
This is definitely another one of those spots where the pot is winnable though. While we didn’t flop a pair or a
strong draw we did in fact catch a small piece.
We have a gutshot to the nut straight, a backdoor flush draw and two overs. This gives us a decent amount of
equity even if our opponent happens to have something really strong like top pair.
And remember this is the worst case scenario (i.e. the top of our opponent’s range). Yet we still have almost 42%
equity in the pot!
So at the very least I will be calling the flop CBet. When you are OOP like this it is also a good idea to mix in
some flop leads and check/raises once in awhile as well though.
Since floating is quite a bit more difficult when OOP these lines allow you to try and take down the pot right now
or at least regain the betting lead.
No matter which line of attack we choose there are several paths to victory on the turn as well. We are going to
be continuing on a ton of different cards which improve our equity.
So in this case:
• Any spade (9 cards)

• Any 8 (4 cards)
• Any J (3 cards)
• Any T (3 cards)
This amounts to 19 cards which is nearly half of the remaining cards in the deck. This means that we will be
floating again or applying pressure on the turn close to 50% of the time.
This is going to make it very difficult for a weak reg like this to continue unless he happens to have a really big
hand.
Forcing the bad regs into uncomfortable spots like this cuts to the very heart of what winning poker is all about at
these stakes. They simply aren’t going to be willing to go to war very often here.
So we can take advantage of this by floating and making aggressive plays at the pot when we flop any kind of
reasonable equity.
Example Hand #24
LAG villain raises from the small blind
Flop:
LAG villain CBets
Hero should CALL
Versus the good regs you should also be floating a lot more often these days as well. And even though we
should expect them to keep applying pressure on the turn more often, we have to get involved or we risk being
run over.
We called preflop here with a hand that isn’t particularly amazing and doesn’t exactly play that well after the flop
either. However it stands to be ahead of our opponent’s range and of course we have that beautiful thing called
position as well.
In a blind versus blind situation like this you can expect a highly aggressive reg to be raising with a range as
wide as 30%, 40% or sometimes even higher.
Here is how our hand does against a 35% range:
Many regs at the lower stakes raise very light when it folds to them in the small blind because they know that
they only have one person left to beat. And a lot of people still surrender their big blind far too easily.
This is why you should defend with a wide range in a situation like this. However, like I discussed before, you
don’t want to just 3Bet them every time or a thinking player like this will just go ahead and start 4Betting the crap
out of you. So it is important to mix in some flat calls as well.
On this extremely dry paired flop we need to be continuing in the hand once again. An aggressive player like this
is going to be CBetting with nearly his entire range on this board. And there is no way that he connected with it
very often.
We could also consider raising here as I will discuss in the next section. But the problem is that we are
representing so little on a board like this.
And a really smart player could realize this and bluff/re-raise us back, forcing us to fold. So this is a perfect spot
to just float and try to take the pot away on later streets.
And yes, even though we expect to face a double barrel on the turn frequently from a player like this, there are
still going to be many ways for us to win the pot.
The bottom line here is that you need to start fighting for more pots against the good regs as well. Floating the
flop with a wider range IP is one of the best places to start.
Example Hand #25
Whale villain raises in EP
Hero calls on the button with:
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero should CALL
In this hand we called preflop with a small pair versus a rec player who raised in EP. This is a great spot to
potentially win a huge pot if we hit our set.
Now versus most regs here I would normally just be set-mining. What I mean by that is I would be folding on the
flop versus their CBet pretty frequently.
While we definitely want to be floating and fighting for more pots it is also still important to be realistic and pick
our spots well.
Messing with the regs when they open in EP (super tight range) is usually not the best idea. Also, we have one
of those hands that has very few ways to improve on later streets.
Versus a Whale though the situation is a lot different. The reason why is because their range is totally different.
Rec players do not think logically about what hands they raise and do not raise with. They also don’t think about
position at the poker table like the regs do. So, often their decisions to raise with certain hands almost seems
purely random.
They can show up with some weird broadway like KT or a small suited connector here just as easily as AA. So
there are many hands in this player’s range that we are actually ahead of.
These types of players also tend to play very poorly on all streets. For example, severely under-betting the pot,
slow-playing and not being able to fold a hand like top pair or an overpair for any amount.
So even if we are behind right now, we might get a very cheap price to try and spike that magical 4 on the turn or
river and win the lottery.
Bottom line, do anything you can to get involved with the rec players. They are your ticket to success in this
game.
7. Raising Them All Day on the Flop

So far we have talked about CBetting the flop and floating the flop. These are two very powerful weapons that
should be the bread and butter of any good flop strategy.
But learning how to raise in the right spots can also confuse your opponents at the lower stakes and end up
winning you a lot more pots as well.
I have done extensive research on this area of the game in programs like PokerTracker. Most regs at the lower
stakes only raise the flop about 10% of the time.
This means that their range is almost all big value hands (sets, overpairs, monster draws). They don’t have any
medium strength hands in their range and they don’t have any bluffs either.
This is so easy to play against that it is almost trivial. You can just fold against them any time they raise the flop if
you don’t have a huge hand yourself.
I play differently though. I raise the flop quite a bit more often, 15% or even 20% of the time depending on the
player and the board texture.

Since we know that many players at the lower stakes don’t like to play a big pot without a big hand, this allows
me to pick up a lot more pots when I probably don’t have the best hand.
And even if they do call my raise on the flop, I can often make them into believers on the turn by simply firing
another barrel. This is a key skill that you should be working into your game as well.
What Hands Should You Raise With?
Let’s talk about what hands to do this with. First off, I am almost never making flop raises with pure junk (no pair,
no draw).
It makes no sense to do this because I know that I am going to get called sometimes. Why not at least have
some equity (even if it is only 10% or 20%) so that we can get lucky and back into a hand sometimes on later
streets?
So I am frequently raising my big hands on the flop just like the other regs.
This would be hands like:
• Sets
• Two pairs
• Overpairs
• Monster draws (12+ outs)
But on top of this I am also sometimes raising with:
• Regular draws (flush and straight)

• Two overs with some sort of backdoor draw
• One over with a gutshot straight draw
I want to make it clear that I am certainly not raising with all of these weaker hands every time. This would put
our raising ranges out of whack in the other direction and be highly exploitable as well.
But unlike most other regs at the micros these days, I will always at least consider the raising option with many
of these hands.
What Type of Player Should You Raise?
As usual the main target here will be the bad regs. Notably the Nits and the TAGfish. These are the types of
players who are most likely to just let us have it and “wait for a better spot.”
Versus the recreational players this flop raising strategy is not effective at all. In fact it is downright harmful for
your winrate.
There is no point in trying to bluff somebody who doesn’t like to fold. When we raise the fish it needs to be for
value.
And versus the good regs my raising range is also on the conservative side but for entirely different reasons.
Since they tend to aggressively bet at the pot, the best play is often just to call them down with a wide range and
let them keep bluffing away their money.
Let’s look at a few examples to help illustrate this.
Example Hand #26
TAGfish villain raises from EP
Flop:
Hero checks
Villan CBets

Hero should RAISE
Here is a good example of a spot where raising is a very profitable option and most players at these stakes
aren’t even considering it.
First off, let’s remind ourselves of our true equity here. We have two overs and we also have a backdoor draw to
the nut flush. So we caught a little bit of something.
But even more importantly this flop absolutely nails our perceived preflop calling range and totally misses our
opponent’s perceived preflop raising range.
Definition: “Perceived Range” - It is often assumed that the preflop raiser has a lot of big pairs and broadway
cards in their range. So cards like A, K, Q, J, T are good for them. Conversely, it is assumed that the preflop
caller has a lot of small pairs, mid pairs and speculative hands like suited connectors. So cards like 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
are good for them.
So for all of these reasons I would always be at least floating in a spot like this. But floating in order to take the
pot away on a later street is a lot easier to do when we are IP.
We are OOP in this hand.
Therefore, a great option is to mix in some check/raises here in order to take down the pot right now or at least
regain the betting lead.
We should be able to fold out all of his big aces and broadway hands on the flop. And with a followup bet on the
turn we might be able to fold out some even stronger hands as well.
If villain happens to have a set on this board or something huge like AA or KK then we probably aren’t going to
move him off it no matter how much pressure we apply.
Luckily we know that these hands are rare though. Also, with an A and a Q in our hand we block two of those big
overpairs, AA and QQ. This makes it much less likely that he has one of them.
The other great thing about a hand like ours though is that it is essentially a throwaway if we do happen to run
into the nuts and get raised. After all, we really only have a couple of overs and a backdoor draw.
If you want to start winning more pots against the bad regs try mixing in some raises like this on the flop from
time to time especially when you are out of position and you have a little bit of equity.
Example Hand #27
Flop:
Hero checks
Villain CBets
Hero should RAISE
In this hand we decide to call out of the big blind with a nice suited connector. As I mentioned earlier, it is a good
idea to flat with a wider range these days from the blinds versus these late position opens.
3Betting is fine as well but if you do it every time, then you start to become a bit unbalanced and any thinking reg
can exploit that.
On the flop we have another situation where there are several different plausible lines that we can take. We can
check/call, check/raise or even lead sometimes too.
Given the board texture, and the fact that we are OOP again, I think this is another great spot for a check/raise
though.
We know that a Nit is going to CBet on an ace high board like this a very high percentage of the time. This flop
nails his perceived range after all.

But since this player raised from the button we know that he actually has a wide range here. He will have a few
aces but he will have so many more hands like a weak pair, weak draw or simply nothing at all.
A check/raise with a followup on the turn is a great play because it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on our
opponent. It pretty much forces him to have a strong ace in order to continue.
And of course even if he manages to call us down we still have the flush draw as well as a backdoor straight
draw to fall back on.
Raising good draws like this (although remember, not every time) is another excellent way to increase the
amount of pots that you win without showdown at the micros.
This is because they simply can’t have a strong enough hand to call us down all the time. And even if they do we
always leave ourselves some sort of reasonable equity when we make these plays anyways.
In other words, we always allow ourselves to win the pot by simply “getting lucky” sometimes too.
The other great thing about this strategy is that it will automatically start getting you a heck of a lot more action
with your really strong hands too.
A lot of people complain these days that they never win a big pot with their AA, sets and so on. And the reason
why is because they have forgotten the cardinal rule in poker that “you have to give action in order to get
action.”
When you go a little crazy with a flush draw like this from time to time it will do wonders for your table image.
Even if you fail to get the bluff through, the advertising that you are a bit of a wild player will help you get all the
action you want later down the road when you actually want it.
Example Hand #28
Whale villain raises from EP
Hero calls in MP with:
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero should RAISE
In this last example we flat in position preflop with a small pair against a loose, passive recreational player.
There is never any point in 3Betting here. He is just going to call any re-raise (because that is what Whales do)
and we still only have a pair of 3’s.

We flop our miracle and have a fish CBetting into us. This is one of the most profitable spots that you can
possibly be in.
Those of you who have read my first book Crushing the Microstakes know that getting the most out of these
players in situations like this is more important for your winrate than anything else.
These guys are the entire reason why we play the game. When you have them dead to rights like this it is
imperative that you get the absolute maximum value out of them every single time.
Many people will routinely slow-play here and this is a serious mistake. Because even on a ridiculously dry
board like this the rec players will find something to call you with if they caught a piece.
You simply cannot win a big pot against passive players like this in poker unless you build it yourself.
Don’t make the mistake of slow-playing and only winning a medium sized pot like so many other regs do. This is
absolutely terrible for your winrate. Always fast-play and give yourself a chance to stack them.
8. The Subtle Art of Dominating 3Bet Pots on the Flop

Let’s talk about 3Bet pots for awhile now because the strategy is a lot different compared to all the single raised
pots that we have discussed so far.
3Bet pots are considerably bigger and are more common these days at the lower stakes. So learning how to
dominate them will be vital to your success at these limits.
The biggest reason why we have to think differently about 3Bet pots is because the stacks are a lot more
shallow after the flop.

A little bit of simple math will help illustrate this better:
This is the typical action in a single raised pot:
• Raise - 3bb
• Call - 3bb
• Blinds - 1bb
Total pot size on the flop = 7bb
This is the typical action in a 3Bet pot:
• Raise - 3bb
• Re-raise to -10bb
• Call - 7bb
• Blinds - 1bb
Total pot size on the flop = 21bb
So as you can see the total pot size on the flop is usually 3 times as much as it is in a single raised pot. This
means that any bets that are made on the flop will also be considerably larger than normal.
For instance, a typical CBet on the flop is usually around 50% or 60% of the pot. So in a single raised pot this
will be about 4bb. In a 3Bet pot however it will be around 12bb.
All of this also tends to have a snowball effect on the later streets as well. For example, let’s assume that there
was a bet and a call on the flop.
By the turn the single raised pot is 15bb:
(7bb + 4bb + 4bb)
By the turn the 3Bet pot is 45bb:
(21bb + 12bb + 12bb)
You can probably see where this is going by now.
In a 3Bet pot things can quickly spiral out of control. Bet sizes on the turn can almost be pot committing. This is
not the case at all in single raised pots. There is a lot more room to manoeuvre.
So therefore we need to make sure that we are making the highest +EV decisions at all times in these situations.
You can almost look at a 3Bet pot as being 3 times as important as a regular pot.
Once again the player type that we are up against will be the biggest determining factor in how we choose to
play our hand. But the action in the hand and the board texture will also be important considerations.

Example Hand #29
TAGfish villain 3Bets from the big blind
Hero calls
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero should CALL
This is a very common spot that I bet you are used to seeing. And if I am guessing right you probably hate
seeing it too! Especially in a 3Bet pot. This is actually a pretty easy hand to play though so let’s break it down.

Calling the preflop 3Bet is pretty much the only play that makes any sense here. We are in position against a
bad reg who is probably re-raising us with a fairly strong range.
As we discussed before, many TAGfish and Nit players at the lower stakes have an overall 3Bet% of 5 or less.
Here again is what that means in terms of actual hands:
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ and sometimes AJ or 99.
So versus a player who is this tight, we might only be flipping (i.e. 50%) versus their range with a hand as strong
as jacks.
What this means is that if we 4Bet we basically just give villain an easy fold with all the hands that we crush like
TT, 99 and AJ and he gets to ship all the money in with the hands that crush us like AA, KK and QQ.
So given the fact that we also have position in this hand, we have a super standard flat call preflop here and we
move on to see a flop.
Everybody hates to see the ace high flop when you have a hand like KK, QQ or JJ. However it is important to
remember that it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are behind. They will miss this board just as often and be just
as scared of the ace.
However, as I have discussed in several previous hands many of the regs in today’s small stakes games tend to
CBet the flop too much. So we should expect to face a bet here on a board like this regardless of whether they
have it or not.
Raising doesn’t make much sense for the exact same reasons as preflop. It simply folds out all of the hands that
we beat, and creates an even bigger pot for all of the hands that beat us.
In other words, a lose/lose situation for us and a win/win for our opponent. So we have another very clear
decision then on the flop. We should just call.
The great thing about a player type like this (bad reg) is that they will rarely put you in a difficult spot on the turn.
What I mean by this is that they won’t put another penny in the pot unless they really do have the ace.
If they check and show weakness then this gives us a great opportunity to make a simple bet on the turn and try
to take it down. This can potentially fold out KK and QQ which is obviously a brilliant result for us.
If on the other hand they do fire again on the turn, then we have a very, very easy fold. This player type is almost
never bluffing.
It is important not to overthink situations like this versus the bad regs in particular. They give off massive clues
about the strength of their hand at every stage. All you have to do is react and adjust accordingly.
Example Hand #30
Hero 3Bets from the big blind with:
Villain calls

Flop:
Hero should CHECK/CALL
As we have discussed several times already, this is a preflop situation where we want to just call sometimes
(instead of always 3Betting) in order to keep our range more balanced and not become exploitable.
Against the weaker regs like this though who are paying less attention to our range in these spots, and also tend
to fold to 3Bets too much, it is fine to go ahead and make the re-raise more often. And that is exactly what we did
in this example.
On the flop we managed to hit top pair with a decent kicker which is great. But considering the board texture
(highly coordinated), the fact that we are OOP, and this being a 3Bet pot, it is a bit of a tricky spot.
Once again, we really want to try and narrow down villain’s range in this situation. Assuming that this is the type
of player that folds to 3Bets a lot before the flop, then we should put him on a fairly tight range when he calls.
Perhaps something like this:
QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, AK, AQ and AJs
*AA and KK are omitted because we can assume that he will 4Bet preflop with these hands most of the time.
Versus this range our equity on the flop looks like this:
So as you can see we are indeed a favorite here but not an overwhelming one.
The problem though is that is it really hard to get a reg to call multiple streets with a worse hand especially in a
3Bet pot. Also, if we get raised then we are in a terrible situation and we will probably have to fold.
So this is another spot where even though the math says bet, the higher expected value decision (the great play)
is to check/call the flop.
This also gives our opponent the opportunity to bluff at the pot when we have a perfect bluff catching hand. That
is why this play is especially effective against the more aggressive regs.
Our flop check also creates deception value about our hand for later streets.
Definition: “Deception Value” - When you show weakness by checking, you under-represent the strength of
your hand. This allows you to get more value on later streets.
This means that we can bet the turn and/or river and we are much likely to get called by worse hands.
Example Hand #31
Whale villain 3Bets from the small blind
Hero calls
Flop:
Villain checks
Hero should CHECK
Let’s look at a totally different example now versus one of the worst players that you can face, a Whale rec.
One of the biggest keys to crushing these players is to dumb everything down massively. In other words, don’t
overthink basic spots like this. And never, ever try to get fancy against them.
When a really bad player 3Bets us preflop we need to put him on a reasonably strong range. Rec players
(excluding Maniacs) don’t actually 3Bet that widely at the micro stakes.
Often their range can be random and bizarre at times like we discussed before, but overall there is still lot’s of
value in it.
When they 3Bet and then pull the old insta-check on an ace high board like this it is almost comical. This is
because most players will auto-CBet this flop as we just discussed in example #29.
Bad players absolutely love to slow play though. So just because our opponent fails to make a CBet here does
not mean that he doesn’t have the ace. In fact often it makes me even more inclined to believe that he has one!
Another point to consider is that bad players absolutely hate to fold anything. So even if he is just checking the
flop because he is a little bit gun-shy with a hand like KK, QQ, JJ or TT, this doesn’t necessarily mean that he is
actually going to fold these hands if we bet. And of course we are in terrible shape versus all of them.
Lastly, if he does happen to have something silly like a suited connector, by checking back the flop we create
that deception value and let a player like this try and run some sort of ridiculous bluff on later streets.
Always keep everything as simple as possible versus the rec players. There is no real reason to bet in a situation
like this. Just check it back and keep the pot size under control.
And if he does happen to have the ace, then just make sure to nail your two outer on the turn and stack him!

Example Hand #32
Hero raises on the button with:
LAG villain 3Bets in the big blind
Hero calls
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero should RAISE
In this final example hand we have another 3Bet pot where there are several different possible lines of attack.
We already know how a 3Bet pot can quickly spiral out of control and even come close to pot committing us
before we know it.
This is why in the previous examples we opted for the more conservative line of exercising some pot control by
just checking or calling on the flop.
This hand is different though. We should be willing to apply the ultimate pressure here and get stacks in the
middle if necessary.
Here’s why:
In this hand we are up against one of the most aggressive player types there is, a LAG. Many LAGs at the lower
stakes these days will have a 3Bet% approaching 10 or even higher especially in a late position battle like this.
So when our opponent 3Bets us preflop he can have an absolutely massive range which includes:
• Any pair
• All big aces
• All good kings
• Most broadways
• Several suited connectors
• Several suited aces

We are ahead of most of these hands with our pair + nut flush draw. In fact even if he happens to be near the top
of his range with a hand like QQ, we are still ahead!
There are really only a couple hands in his range that will be happy to play for all of the money right now (55, 99
and JJ).
So since this is a 3Bet pot we should just go straight for the jugular right now and raise the flop. If he shoves, we
call. If he calls, we shove any turn.
This line puts all of the pressure on him. It forces him to either have the nuts or hero call us with an overpair
which we are a small favorite against anyways.
Always make sure that you are making clear and decisive decisions like this on the flop especially in 3Bet pots.
This helps take the guesswork out of it on later streets.
The Turn Strategy Playbook

The turn is where things start to get really interesting in this game. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, this is
the street where champions are made! This is where elite poker players really start to get ahead.
Why you might ask?
Because this is the first betting round in No Limit Hold’em where the money in the pot starts to get significant
regardless of whether it is a single raised or a 3Bet pot.
There is no more playing around here. Decisions on the turn and on the river will have serious consequences,
positive or negative, on your bottom line in this game.
In a single raised heads up pot with a flop CBet and a call the pot size will typically be about 15bb by the turn. A
double barrel bet size will usually be about 10bb.
So barreling the turn won’t commit you to the pot by any means. However, one of the biggest differences
between breakeven players and big-time winners is how many of these medium sized pots that they win or lose.
And of course in a 3Bet pot, any action that you take again on the turn is extremely important. In fact, when you
make a double barrel you will typically have close to half of your stack in the middle.
So the bottom line is that our decisions on the turn start to add up in a big way. We need to make sure that we
are outplaying our opponents and taking more than our fair share of the pots. Once again this means finding the
great play on a consistent basis.
Now sometimes, many times in fact, the great play will be to just fold. That point needs to be crystal clear. But
anytime there is an opportunity to take the pot away from a weaker opponent in particular, we need to be
pouncing on it.
One of the most powerful weapons in my turn playbook is the double barrel. So let’s start there.
9. Firing the Second Shell and Making Them Fold

Everybody will eventually make the same amount of good hands in poker. And these hands tend to play
themselves. I don’t need to write a poker book to tell you how to bet your AA or your set again on the turn.
But what a lot of people fail to really master at the micros is how to win more pots on the later streets when they
don’t have the nuts.
This is where the real money is at in this game. Taking it down without needing to even show your hand. This is
why the power of aggression is so important in poker.
And this is why the double barrel should be one of your absolute go-to weapons at the lower stakes. I
recommend betting again on the turn about 50% of the time.
The reason why this play is so effective is because there are still so many weak regs and fish at these stakes
who play No Limit Hold’em as if they were playing Limit Hold’em.
What I mean by this is that they will often call the flop to “see where they are at.” And if you can fire again on the
turn, then they will give you credit and often even lay down the best hand!
One of the main reasons why they will make these folds is because they know it is going to start getting
expensive for them on the turn and river.
As we discussed in the player types section, the hallmark of many small stakes regs is an unwillingness to put a
significant amount of their stack in the middle without a very strong hand.
So we can take advantage of this weakness by betting again on the turn with a higher frequency. The real key to
making effective double barrels though is knowing exactly which opponents to do it against and what cards to do
it on.
Let’s get right into that.
Firing Again on Turn Scare Cards
One of the easiest ways to get the bad regs in particular to fold on the turn is to bet on scare cards. This is
literally like free money sometimes.
What is a scare card?
A scare card is any card which improves our perceived range but does not improve theirs. If you remember from
above:
The perceived range of the preflop raiser is:
• Big pairs
• Big aces
• Broadways
The perceived range of the preflop caller is:
• Middle pairs
• Small pairs
• Speculative hands (i.e. suited aces, suited connectors)
This doesn’t mean that they actually have these hands. It just means that this is what most people will assume
that they have.
So if we are the preflop raiser we want to be firing again frequently on big cards in particular (T, J, Q, K, A).
Whether we actually have these cards in our hand or not is irrelevant.
It is only what our opponent thinks that we have that is important here. Weak opponents (people who talk
themselves into folding a lot), are the best targets. And the ace and the king scare cards in particular are
extremely effective at getting them to lay it down.
Let’s look at a quick example of this.
Example Hand #33
Nit villain calls on the button
Flop:
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Hero should BET AGAIN
So we make a standard raise from EP in this hand with a small pair and get called by a Nit on the button.
The flop is dry and uncoordinated with low cards so we make a routine CBet. When we get called there is a
pretty good chance that we are behind.

Here’s why:
First off, there is no flush draw on this flop. And while there are a few straight draws like 35 and 56, it is pretty
unlikely that a Nit flats us preflop with hands like these.
This player type is also very unlikely to flat preflop with any 7x, 4x or 2x hands. In fact if villain did connect with
this flop, then it will almost always be with a set.
Monster hands like that are hard to make though. So the majority of his range is probably going to be some sort
of pocket pair like 66, 88, 99, TT, JJ, QQ. I assume he 3Bets us preflop with AA and KK.
So this is why when the turn comes with the ace scare card that is vital that we continue betting again. All of
these pocket pair hands are going to absolutely hate seeing this turn card. A weak opponent like this will
convince themselves that we hit the ace.
And of course the great thing is that sometimes we actually will have the ace here. We would play hands like AK,
AQ and AJ in the exact same way.
The bottom line is that this is a very easy scare card for us to represent versus the type of player who doesn’t
like to risk significant portions of his stack without a really strong hand.
Anytime we can get another reg to lay down the best hand against us, this is a huge victory. And this is
absolutely how winning is done in poker.
Make sure that you are consistently using turn scare cards like this against the weaker regs at the micros.

Firing Again on Turn Equity Cards
Another great opportunity to hammer on the weak regs is to continue betting again on cards that help improve
our equity in the hand.
What do I mean by improve our equity in the hand?
I am talking about cards that give us some sort of pair or legit draw. This means that even if we are still behind in
the hand, we have a reasonable chance of making the best hand by the river.
At the top of this section I recommended firing a double barrel on the turn about 50% of the time. So we already
know that we will be frequently firing again with all of our big hands (overpairs, sets, top pair etc.) and also on
scare cards.
But even if we were to bet the turn again in these spots every single time, it still would not add up to 50%. This is
because big hands like this and good scare cards just don’t come around that often.
So this is where betting on turn equity cards comes in. This will increase your turn double barrel rate and allow
you to win more pots without showdown, often forcing them to fold the best hand.
Let’s look at some exact situations of when to do this.
Example Hand #34
TAGfish villain calls in the cutoff
Flop:
Hero CBets
Villain calls

Turn:
We make a routine preflop raise here with a strong suited ace and get called by a weak reg in late position. We
then go ahead and make a standard CBet on a dry and uncoordinated flop.
When we get called we expect to be behind to a lot of pocket pairs and perhaps top pair as well for all the same
reasons that we discussed in the previous example.
But on the turn we pick up a card that improves our equity significantly. It gives us both the nut flush draw and an
inside wheel straight draw. And of course we still have our two strong overs as well.
While this card won’t be particularly scary to all those pocket pair hands like 66, 77, 88, 99, JJ, QQ (or even top
pair), it does give us plenty of equity versus all of them.
We can river the best hand on any:
• Diamond
• Ace
• Jack
• 3
This gives us 18 total outs. Without boring you with a bunch of mathematical equations we will hit this on the
river approximately 39% of the time. Not too bad.
But even more importantly, many regs at the lower stakes have a tendency to fold too often when the heat gets
turned up.
There just aren’t too many micro stakes regs who are going to be willing to take their middle pair or even top pair
here and call off upwards of half their stack to see a showdown.
Remember that the threat of us firing again on the river is very real for them. In fact, as I will discuss in the river
section later, we will be applying the ultimate pressure on several river scare cards as well.
So this is why it is absolutely vital that you start taking advantage of turns cards that improve your equity versus
the weaker regs.
This is just another way for you to start picking up some more easy pots at the lower limits without having to
show the best hand. Because who has time for that after all?
Example Hand #35
TAGfish villain raises from the button
Hero 3Bets from the big blind with:

Villain calls
Flop:
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:

This time we are in a 3Bet pot. Let’s see how this changes things.
A TAGfish reg opens on the button and we know that he is going to have a reasonably wide range here. He will
be simply trying to steal the blinds a lot. So versus a weak reg like this we choose to just go ahead and put in the
3Bet.
When villain decides to call, we need to put him on a fairly strong range. Perhaps something like this:
• Strong aces (AQ, AJ)

• Middle pairs (66, 77, 88, 99, TT, JJ)
• Broadways (KQ, KJ)
*AA, KK, QQ and AK are omitted because we can expect him to 4Bet us frequently with these hands.
So on this dry jack high board we have a fairly straightforward CBet. I expect him to stick around with some of
his pocket pairs and of course top pair.
But since we will only be CBetting about 50% of the pot, we just don’t need folds all that often. He easily folds
enough of his range here to make this a profitable bet.
Since this is a 3Bet pot and the size of the pot is starting to get pretty big, we will probably have to just give up
on a lot of turn cards. This isn’t one of them though.
Firstly, the king on the turn acts as a real scare card versus all of the pocket pair and top pair hands that we
expect him to be hanging on with. And we can very credibly rep AK and KQ here because we would often play
these hands the exact same way.
The other benefit of this turn card is that it gives us an additional 4 outs with the gutshot nut straight draw to the
T. Not a huge amount of increased equity (about 8%), but good to have in our back pocket nonetheless.
Now you might be asking yourself though, what happens if we double barrel and he shoves the turn on us?
Since this is a 3Bet pot haven’t we put too much in the middle to fold?
The answer is simple. No, we haven’t.
The whole idea of being “pot committed” in poker is often used as a justification to make all sorts of bad calls. No
matter how much of your stack is already in the middle, you always have a decision to stick the rest in or not.
In this spot, if we get shipped on by a weak reg like this, then we can be highly certain that he has two pair or
better. Like bet the farm certain.
Passive players like this just do not shove over double barrels with weak hands when we have shown such an
incredible amount of strength.
And yes, sometimes they will just decide to turn into a calling station as well with some sort of a pair and we
won’t be able to make them lay it down.
Does it suck to lose half a stack? Absolutely. But sometimes you need to be willing to apply some big time
pressure in order to get a fold.
The bottom line is that with a powerful play like this we will get a weak player to tap out a solid amount of the
time. This line basically forces him to either have the nuts or make an incredibly gutsy call down.
And it is important to remember that we aren’t just randomly clicking buttons here. We still have two big
overcards and a gutshot straight draw to the nuts. This means that we will “get lucky” on occasion and back into
the best hand on the river anyways.

10. Double Floating - The Secret Weapon

Over the last several years the games at the lower stakes have gotten more aggressive. Many of the regs (even
some of the bad ones) are willing to start firing two barrels a little bit more often.
But the great thing about poker is that there is a counter to every strategy, a ying for every yang. In this case, the
answer is the double float.
We already discussed floating the flop before and how effective it can be. A float is simply calling your
opponent’s continuation bet with the intention of taking the pot away on a later street.
And we usually want to use this play when IP because it makes it much easier to decide how to win the pot on
the turn or river.
So a double float means exactly what you probably think it does. We float the turn too. The natural counter to
somebody who double barrels too much is to simply call them down lighter.
This will often be the case against the better regs like the TAGs and LAGs who fire the second barrel 50% of the
time and even higher in some cases. There is just no way that they have a really strong hand anywhere near this
often.
Now as I have mentioned several times in this book, we are not going to be making plays like this with no equity.
There is just no reason to ever do this.
So when we have nothing at all on the turn (no pair and no draw), then this is the time to simply fold. I want to
make that point extremely clear here. And of course with our really strong hands like two pair or better we will
frequently be raising them for value.
So the hands that we will be double floating with are:
• Decent made hands (middle pair or top pair)

• Good draws (flush draw or straight draw)
We typically don’t want to be raising with hands like this because we can’t stand a re-raise. But also, by just
calling we get the added benefit of keeping our opponent’s bluffing range as wide as possible.
Therefore, we can often win the pot at showdown with the best hand. Or we can also decide to bluff the river if
we miss our draw as we will discuss later.
Example Hand #36
TAG villain raises in EP
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero should CALL AGAIN
In this hand we flat on the button preflop with a fairly strong pocket pair, 99. As we know, when a reg opens in
EP their range tends to be fairly strong.
We are probably ahead of some parts of his range (lower pocket pairs), but behind or flipping with other parts
(higher pocket pairs and hands like AK/AQ/KQ).
Therefore, this is another one of those spots where 3Betting only gets us action from better hands and folds out
all worse. So we have a straightforward flat call preflop in position.
We catch a fairly nondescript queen high flop with a flush draw on it. Villain CBets and we make another pretty
standard call here.
Most regs at the lower stakes will CBet the flop a lot these days. Villain will hit this board on occasion with hands
like AQ, KQ or a flush draw but most of the time he has missed and is just keeping up the aggression.
The turn comes with an offsuit 6 and we know from the previous discussion that this is neither a scare card nor a
card that is likely to have improved our opponent’s hand. So what could he be double barreling with then?
Well I think that at this point his range is very polarized towards value (queen/big pair) or weak (flush draw or a
bluff).
Definition: “Polarized Range” - Technical term in poker meaning that someone’s range is highly defined as
either good hands or bad hands with no in between.
Versus one of the weaker regs who only fire a double barrel 30% or 40% of the time I will lean towards a fold
here most of the time. This is because a passive players’s double barrel range is going to have a much greater
percentage of value hands in it.
But versus an aggressive reg like this, I expect him to be barreling the turn with a a lot more hands that we beat
including draws.
The great thing about a double float at the lower stakes, and why it is such a powerful weapon against the
aggressive regs, is that it is still viewed as a strong play.

What I mean by this is that they will typically give you quite a bit of respect when you do it. And there aren’t too
many regs at these stakes who have the heart to fire the third barrel on the river as a bluff.
So when we double float on the turn here the odds of villain checking and giving us a free showdown on the river
are high. And since we are IP we also retain the option of going for some thin value or turning our hand into a
bluff.
Example Hand #37
Hero raises from the cutoff with:
LAG villain 3Bets from the small blind
Hero calls
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero should CALL AGAIN
Let’s look at a 3Bet pot this time. We open in LP with KQ offsuit and get re-raised out of the small blind by an
aggressive LAG regular.
Once again this is one of those spots where 4Betting will probably only get us action from better hands and fold
out all worse. This is a lose/lose for us so we choose to just flat call IP.
We flop middle pair on an ace high board and villain fires his CBet. Now as we know, most regs at the lower
stakes these days will be firing a CBet with nearly their entire range on this type of flop. So we make a pretty
routine call with middle pair good kicker here.
The turn is where things start to get interesting. We know that this is a 3Bet pot, and therefore when villain fires
again we are going to have to commit a serious portion of our stack in order to continue in the hand.

The safe play here is just to fold. This is the average play and nobody could be blamed for making it. But the
great play is to double float.
The reason why is because we know that this is the type of reg who will double barrel very aggressively in this
spot. Though this turn card is a complete blank I expect a LAG to continue betting with a wide range of draws
and some pairs that he is turning into a bluff.
Here are few of these hands (we beat them all):
• JJ, TT, 99, 88, 66, 55

• KJ, KT, QJ, QT
• Any flush draw
It is also important to note that we do not have a diamond in our hand. This is a good thing because it makes it a
little bit more likely that he does indeed have a flush draw.
Versus some of the aggressive regs in today’s games (TAGs and LAGs) it is important that you expand your
calling range on the later streets or they will just end up running you over.
And yes, while it totally sucks to stick a large portion of our stack in the middle only to be wrong and get shown
an ace sometimes, you aren’t going to beat the good aggressive regs by making tight folds all the time.
That is exactly the kind of weak play that we have been talking about how to exploit throughout this entire book!
So the last thing that we want to do is start playing weak ourselves.
And lastly as I mentioned before, if our opponent is able to ship the river then we can be very confident that we
are beat. There are very few small stakes regs that have the heart to triple barrel as a bluff.
This is especially the case in a 3Bet pot and on a board like this where we are clearly representing a strong pair
that isn’t interested in being pushed around.
11. The Turn Bluff Raise: Owning Their Soul

Raising the turn as a bluff is one of the most powerful ways to beat good poker players in today’s micro stakes
games.
Much like the double float that we just discussed, this play is one of the most “advanced” strategies in this book
and should never be attempted against the rec players or even most bad regs.
The recs will just call you down without even thinking because that is what they do best. And the bad regs will
often be on such a strong range that making them lay it down will be too difficult of a task.
The turn bluff raise is highly effective against the good regs though because they have a much wider double
barrel range and they are also more likely to be capable of making a big fold.
But the main reason why this play works so well is because most players at the micros have almost no bluffs in
their range when they do it. What I mean by this is that when they raise the turn, it is almost always the nuts.
It isn’t until you get to much higher stakes that you start to see the regs raising the turn with a balanced range
(strong hands, mediocre hands and bluffs). So this means that a lot of decent thinking regs at the lower stakes
will give us quite a bit of credit when we do it.
The other reason why this play works so well is because it exploits a major weakness of all small stakes players
which we have discussed several times. That is, an unwillingness to commit large portions of their stack without
a very strong hand.
Basically, when we raise the turn (single raised pot or 3Bet pot), we are drawing a line in the sand that says: “I
am not playing around here, this is going to get really expensive for you. Fold now.”
Lastly, like with all plays in this book we will never be pure bluffing here. This play would be more accurately
described as a semi-bluff raise because we will always have at least some equity when we do it.
What Hands Should You Bluff Raise The Turn With?
Well, remember how we just discussed that we want to double float the aggressive regs with our top pairs,
middle pairs and good draws?
We do this because we can’t play for stacks with these hands but they have enough equity that we can often win
the pot at showdown unimproved or with a bluff on the river.
So you might be able to guess then that the hands that I am bluff raising the turn with typically have far less
equity than these.
I am talking about hands like:
• Gutshot straight draw (4 outs)

• Bottom pair (5 outs)
• Two overs (6 outs)
All of these hands have some equity in the pot but they are a little bit too weak to call a double barrel with.
Since we know that folding will always result in a guaranteed loss for us, the central idea here is to try and turn
a profit by turning a few of these hands into a bluff instead.
Also, it should be noted that the goal is 100% to get them to fold right now. We do not expect to be able to win
the pot at showdown very often unless we get very lucky and hit the right card.
We need to be very precise about when we choose to make this play. There is no easier way to throw away
money in poker than to start randomly raising regs with a bunch of weak hands.
In fact on many occasions, the most “profitable” play when facing a double barrel will indeed be to just fold. It is
important to remember that you can’t win every pot in poker. Sometimes you just have to give up and cut your
losses.
Showdown Percentage: The Crucial Stat
So we already know that this play targets the good regs specifically (TAGs and LAGs). But let’s drill down a little
bit deeper.
The biggest determining factor on whether I make this play or not is how often they go to showdown. And you
will find a wide discrepancy here.
Some regs will go to showdown with a wide range of hands. And some will be much more selective and look to
make the big fold a lot more often. Clearly we want to be making this play against the latter type of player and
not the former.
If you play online and use a HUD, then the crucial stat to pay attention to here is Went to Showdown (WTSD%).
Here are some rough guidelines to go by (Note - These numbers will be slightly higher in 6max):
• WTSD%: 26 or more - Calling station, don’t bluff them

• WTSD%: 23, 24, 25 - It’s close
• WTSD%: 22 or less - Weak player, bluff them
If you play live then you will have to rely on your observations from previous hands. How often have you seen
them going to showdown? What kind of hands have they shown up with, weak or strong?
Lastly, it is very important that you routinely show up with the nuts when you raise the turn as well. This is why I
am a big fan of fast playing most of my strong hands at the lower limits. It makes my bluffs a lot more believable.
They need to know that there is a very good chance that they get stung hard if they choose to continue against
us.
Example Hand #38
TAG villain raises in EP
Hero calls from MP with:
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero should RAISE
In this hand we flat with AQ offsuit in middle position against a TAG who raised from EP. I expect this player to be
raising with all pairs, some big aces and a few broadways.
This is another one of those spots where 3Betting doesn’t really make a ton of sense with our hand. It is better to
just flat and see a flop in position.
When he fires the flop we know that he will be doing this with most of his range. With two good overs, the
backdoor nut flush draw and position this is a pretty standard float.
When he double barrels the turn we have a decision to make. We can’t really just call down at this point. Even
though an aggressive reg’s range is still decently wide here, we don’t actually have anything! We can’t even beat
a pair of 3’s.
So we only have two options really, raise or fold. Folding is perfectly fine and it is clearly the “safe” play. It is also
the play that you should be making a large amount of the time.
But of course you can’t win in poker by folding. So the only question then is can we turn a profit here by raising
on occasion? I think the answer to that is yes.
Here’s why:
We can rep a ton of different sets on this board such as pocket 3’s, 5’s, 7’s and 8’s. Remember that these are all
hands that are in our perceived range as the preflop caller. And we would often play them exactly like this.
Also, we are up against an aggressive TAG who likely can’t stand a raise all that often. Just imagine having 99 or
TT here and you get raised on the turn.
You definitely can’t feel very good about where you stand in the hand especially when you are out of position
and a huge amount of river cards are going to suck for you as well.
If I do choose to pull the trigger on a bluff raise in a spot like this, then I will always have a quick look at my
opponent’s WTSD% first. If it is anywhere approaching mid 20’s or higher, then I will just make the safe play and
fold.
Once again (and just like with the double float) we need to remember that this is a very high variance play.
Sometimes despite our best calculations we just won’t be able to get the fold. And sometimes we will just have
poor timing and run into the top of his range.
But unless we are willing to make some big plays at the pot every once in awhile there is just no way that we can
ever expect to show a decent profit against the better regs like this.
And it is important that when we do decide to run a big bluff like this that it is always for the right reasons and
under the right conditions. We aren’t just clicking random buttons and praying here.
Keys to this hand:
• The right board to represent our perceived range on (small and middle cards)
• The right player type to bluff (aggressive TAG)
• Weak player (WTSD% in the low 20’s or less)
• Outs (two overs = 6 outs)
Example Hand #39
Hero raises from the cutoff with:

LAG villain 3Bets from the big blind
Hero calls
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero should SHOVE ALL-IN
Let’s look at a little bit different situation here versus a LAG in a 3Bet pot.
Now as we know, in 3Bet pots our decisions need to be a lot more precise because a bloated pot like this can
quickly get out of control.
If we are going to take a float the flop and raise the turn line in a 3Bet pot, then we are usually going to be
shoving our entire stack in the middle.
We also won’t have nearly as much fold equity in a 3Bet pot because of all the money in the middle already.
Many people will just say, “Screw it I have pot odds,” and call with their top pair or overpair anyways.
So if I am contemplating a bluff on the turn in a 3Bet pot I typically want a hand that is quite a bit stronger than in
the previous example (i.e. more outs).
In this hand we open from the cutoff with a decent suited ace. We get 3Bet from the blinds by a LAG regular.
Now we already know that a loose and aggressive player like this is going to be re-popping us with a wide range
here. So much so that I will certainly consider 4Betting with a hand like this on occasion as well.
But in this situation we choose to just flat in position. Villain goes ahead and fires his CBet on a fairly
uncoordinated king high board with a flush draw.
Now even though we do not have a whole lot at the moment (backdoor nut flush draw and one overcard), we
can’t be calling 3Bets preflop if we are just going to fold every time we don’t nail the flop.
And once again, we also know that villain’s range is very wide here and he will be virtually auto-CBetting a board
like this. So we make a fairly standard float here.

When the turn comes with a card that improves our hand (we have 4 to the flush now), and villain double barrels,
we have a serious decision to make.
Calling is an option but it will require us to stick a considerable portion of our stack in the middle and we will only
make our hand on the river about 26% of the time (9 clubs + 3 aces = 12 outs).
This means that 74% of the time we will need to make a huge bet on the river as a pure bluff in order to win the
pot. There is another option on the turn here though. That is to shove all-in.
The advantage of this line is that it puts incredible pressure on our opponent and essentially forces him to have a
really strong hand. We also still have some reasonable equity even if he finds a way to make the call.
The only hands that he can really happily call us with here are AA, KK, AK and a set. Sets are really hard to
make in poker and we block both AA and AK so these hands will likely be a small portion of his range.
It is much more likely that he will show up with hands like:
• KQ, KJ, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 77, 66

• Any flush draw (spades or clubs)
It will be very difficult for him to call off the rest of his stack with most of these hands.
Lastly, I will always check villain’s WTSD% before ever attempting a play like this. If he goes to showdown a lot,
then I will never raise here.
Making a big play like this requires a situation where all of the conditions are absolutely perfect:
• Highly aggressive reg repping a very narrow value range

• Opponent is capable of making a big fold (doesn’t go to showdown a lot)
• We have some reasonable equity
When you make a play like this from time to time for all of the right reasons, it can make a huge difference to
your winrate in the long run. This is the kind of next level thinking that the biggest winners in the game are using.
Also, another hidden benefit to running a big bluff like this from time to time is that even if it doesn't work out, it is
absolutely incredible for your image.
When everybody sees that you just shoved the turn with a flush draw they will immediately peg you as a
complete maniac. Many regs will take a note on something like this and remember it for months and months
down the line.
And therefore, the next time you are in a spot like this and shove with AA or a set, you will have a much easier
time getting paid off.
Example Hand #40
TAG villain raises on the button
Hero calls in the the big blind with:
Flop:
Hero checks
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Hero checks
Villain bets
Hero should RAISE
Let’s look at one last hand here and find a way to outplay another reg.
We flat preflop from the blinds with a nice suited king versus an LP steal attempt by a TAG. As we have
discussed several times, 3Betting is totally fine here as well but versus the better regs you want to mix in some
flat calls for balance also.
We don’t exactly smash the flop but with backdoor flush and straight draws as well as two overs we can
profitably check/call here for sure. Check/raising or even leading out are also viable options as well.
On the turn we catch a runner to one of our backdoor draws and we decide to check again. When an aggressive
TAG fires the double barrel here this is another great spot to move him off the pot with a raise.
In fact unlike in the previous two hands raising is very clearly the superior play here. And one of the biggest
reasons why is because we are OOP in this hand.
This makes it much more difficult to win the pot on the river with a bluff or to get paid off when we hit. We will
have to bet first in the dark in both instances.
Also, there are many straights and two pair hands that we can represent on this turn card. Plus even if called we
have plenty of outs to make the best hand on the river.
It is really important that you are consistently thinking of creative ways to take pots away from the regs rather
than just calling down and praying like most people do at these stakes.
While these plays should be used very sparingly and only in the perfect situations, this is exactly how you
start separating yourself from the masses of mediocre players at these limits.
More specifically, this is how you beat good thinking poker players.

The River Strategy Playbook

The most important street in No Limit Hold’em to master is undoubtedly the river. And learning how to crush your
opponents on this betting round is also crucial to your success.
The reason why is very simple. On the river the pot size is larger on average than any other street. Therefore,
your decisions here (good or bad) can have an absolutely huge impact on your overall long term winrate and
profit in this game.
So finding the great play on a consistent basis has to be our main goal here.
There are many different plays that we can use:
• The triple barrel

• The stop and go value bet
• The stop and go bluff
• The bluff raise
• The thin value raise
• The big call
I am going to discuss all of these plays thoroughly in the following sections. When implemented correctly they
can create immediate and large new profit sources for you at the poker tables.
Let’s get to it!
12. Triple Barreling - The Strongest Play in the Game

There is nothing more scary for our opponents at the micros than when we raise preflop and then bet the flop,
turn and river.
And I am talking about the regs here. As we know the recreational players will just call you down anyways. And
that is why we will never be triple barreling them light.
Most regs though (whether good or bad) at the lower limits still view a triple barrel as serious business. They will
only call you down with a really strong hand.
But this doesn’t mean that we can go around firing three shells at them whenever we want. That is a good way to
start getting looked up much more often and bleeding some serious money.
This is still a play which should be a staple of your game against many of the regs though. And you should be
fully capable of doing it with lots of value hands and some bluffs as well.
Triple barreling for value is pretty straightforward. We want to get the maximum payoff with our strong hands like
overpairs and sets so we will often be betting all three streets with them.
Triple barrel bluffing though is one of the most complex plays to make in the game. A lot of different factors need
to be in place for it to work.
• Weak opponent
• River scare card
• Credible story

Just to name a few. But even though this play needs to be used sparingly and with extreme caution, it is still one
of my all time favorites for crushing the weaker regs in today’s games.
The other amazing benefit of working a few three barrel bluffs into your range is that it will dramatically increase
the amount of action that you get when you actually want it (i.e. when you have the nuts).
Let’s look at some examples.
Example Hand #41
TAGfish villain calls in the big blind
Flop:
Villain checks
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero bets
Villain calls
River:
Villain checks
In this hand we raise in middle position with a strong suited ace. We get called by a TAGfish in the blinds.
A weaker reg like this will have a lot of pocket pairs in this spot. He will also have a few big aces that he didn’t
want to 3Bet with like AQ, AJ and AT as well as a few broadways like KQ, KJ and QJ.
We flop the backdoor nut flush draw with one over on a fairly dry rainbow queen high board. So we go ahead
and make a pretty standard CBet after villain checks.
I expect to fold out some his pocket pairs, big aces and broadways. When he calls we can narrow his range
down to Qx hands along with some stubborn pocket pairs like JJ, TT and 99.
After he checks to us again on a turn card which improves our equity, you already know from previous
discussions that we are going to continue betting.
At this point when he calls us again we need to give him some real credit. Most regs (especially the weak ones
like this) aren’t calling your double barrels with nothing.
Our opponent is very likely now to have some sort of Qx hand. Since the turn didn’t really change the
complexion of the board too much, he could also still be hanging on with a hand like JJ, TT or 99.
What all of this ultimately means is that we are going to need to give up on a lot of river cards. However, this is
not one of them.
When you consider his likely range in this spot, middle pair hands and Qx, it is going to be very hard for him to
hero call this river unless he has exactly KQ.
All of his stubborn pocket pairs are going to absolutely hate this river card and he won’t be very happy with AQ
or QJ either.
And since there are multiple king hands that we would play in this exact same way such as AK and KQ, our story
checks out as well.
The final piece of the puzzle when considering a triple barrel here is to make sure that our opponent is not a
calling station. So once again, if I am playing online then I will always have a look at the WTSD% stat before I
consider firing the third barrel here.
Specifically, I will be looking for low 20’s or less. Mid 20’s or higher indicates the type of player who is not afraid
to make the big call. This is obviously not the kind of player who we want to be running a big bluff against!
If you can take down just a single pot like this each session versus a weaker reg it will have a big impact on your
winnings. It is very important that you use this same high level of analysis and precision before ever attempting
this play though.
It has to be against the right player, on the right river card and your story needs to be believable as well. This
means that there has to be plenty of other value hands that you would play the exact same way.
Example Hand #42
Nit villain calls from the small blind
Flop:
Villain checks
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero bets
Villain calls
River:
Villain checks
In this example we raise from early position with my favorite hand, AA. We get called from the blinds by a Nit.
This player type is going to call our raise out of the blinds with a tighter range than the TAGfish in the previous
hand.
Villain’s likely range:
• Small pocket pairs

• Mid pocket pairs
• Big aces
So he is mostly trying to set-mine us and there will be a few premium hands in there as well that he was too
afraid to 3Bet us with.
We catch a very good flop versus this range. A paired board makes it much less likely that he hit a set. Also, low
cards means that many of his pocket pairs will be overpairs to the board. So when he checks to us we make the
very obvious CBet here for value.
When another really good low card falls on the turn and he checks to us again, we have another mandatory
value bet here.
He still has an overpair to the board with many pocket pairs like 77, 88 and 99. He also picked up a straight draw
with a few of these hands as well.
And of course if he happens to have a big pair like TT, JJ, QQ or KK then he is never going anywhere. So it is
very important to always keep your foot firmly on the gas here and make them pay.
In addition to this though, there is another very important meta-game reason to continuing betting here that
many people miss.
We already saw in the turn section just how often we are firing a double barrel as a bluff. So how do we get them
to fold more often versus our bluffs? Easy, show up with lots of really strong hands too!
When they know that they are just as likely to run into a hand like AA, they will think twice before calling us down
light.
When the river comes with another relatively harmless low card and villain checks to us again, we have another
clear value bet that a lot of regs at these stakes will miss.
Here’s why:
When villain checks to us again on the river his hand is almost face up at this point. He has some sort of
overpair to the board the large majority of the time and he is looking for a cheap showdown.
Most regs at these stakes will not be able to lay it down when we bet again. And given the size of the pot at this
point, missing this bet would be a colossal mistake.
On the rare occasion that he is trapping us and waiting to raise with some sort of monster, we have the easiest
fold in the world. This is because there is no way on earth that a passive player like this is ever going to bluff
raise us here.
And finally, meta-game once again. If you want your triple barrel bluffs like in the previous example to get
through, then they absolutely need to know that you will show up with the nuts plenty of the time as well.
13. The Stop and Go Value Bet

Getting value on the river, especially thin value, is one of the most important keys to your success at the poker
tables.
Even though I talked a lot before about double barreling and raising on the turn, plenty of the time we will be
checking the turn as well for a variety of different reasons.
And the hidden benefit of this is that it creates deception value about our hand. It is now time to cash that in on
the river. We do this by making what I call the stop and go value bet.
The most important thing to remember when the turn goes check/check is that our hand is severely under
represented. What this means is that our opponent will often put us on a much worse range of hands than we
actually have.
In fact many players at these stakes will view our turn check as giving up. Therefore they will think that our river
bet is a likely bluff and look to call us down wide.
So this presents us with a great opportunity to get some extremely thin value with hands like middle pair, bottom
pair and sometimes even worse.
One of the biggest secrets to crushing the micros is never missing out on getting value in these marginal spots.
This is because sometimes these bets can be as much as 10bb.
While this might not sound like much, over the course of thousands and thousands of hands this adds up in a
huge way.
And the way to know that you are “doing it right” with these value bets is if you are getting called by better hands
once in awhile. Yes, you read that right. I am suggesting that sometimes losing the pot is actually a good thing.
The reason why is because this means is that you are pushing the envelope to the max and always trying to get
every last chip out of them.
Another thing to remember is that there are still many calling stations at these limits, especially the recreational
players, but some regs as well.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that there is nothing that they can logically call you with. Many small stakes
players are easily swayed by their emotions and random “hunches.” They don’t play the game logically.
They also often harbor deep suspicions that everybody is trying to bluff them as well. And if you have the
aggressive image that this entire book has been teaching you, then believe me, they will find something to call
you with!
Example Hand #43
Hero raises on the button with:
Whale villain calls in the big blind
Flop:
Villain checks
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero checks

River:
Villain checks
Hero should VALUE BET
This hand is an excellent example of a thin value spot that a lot of people miss.
We raise preflop from late position and get called in the big blind by a recreational player. As we know, this is one
of the best situations to be in.
This player type will be calling with as much as half of the deck here. Therefore, there is no point in even
bothering to predict their range at this point. It is simply a huge amount of hands.
The best and most profitable way to play against these players is the most straightforward and obvious way. You
should just be making the most basic, stupidly obvious play versus them close to 100% of the time.
So when the flop comes king high with a flush draw and we catch middle pair, this is a very easy CBet for value.
We are well ahead of their range.
As we discussed in the player types section the best way to exploit the Whale player type is to absolutely value
bet them to death. So we should continue firing on a lot of turn cards with our middle pair as well.
This is not one of them though.
The queen of spades is one of the worst cards in the deck for us. It is another overcard to our hand and it also
completes the flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. When villain checks to us, we should just check behind.
When the river completely bricks out and he checks to us again we have a clear value bet in front of us even
though all we have is 3rd pair with a marginal kicker.
When this type of player checks to us this is almost always a sign of defeat. In the odd situation that he is
trapping and chooses to check/raise, we have a very easy fold.
Also, by checking the turn we created a ton of deception value. A rec player will therefore often put us on a pure
bluff when we bet the river and frequently look us up with bottom pair or even ace high.
It is extremely important that you are able to recognize thin value bet spots like this and milk every last chip out
of them.
Elite poker players are always betting the river here and getting that extra 5bb-10bb out of them. Breakeven
players are checking behind and letting them keep that money.
With recreational players in particular, don’t even bother trying to think about what they can logically call you
with. They will call you with two napkins.
Don’t miss these thin value bets.

Example Hand #44
TAGfish villain calls from the button
Flop:
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Hero checks
Villain checks
River:
Hero should VALUE BET
It isn’t just the huge fish that we need to be getting thin value out of though. Let’s look at another spot against a
bad reg while being OOP this time.
Raising preflop with tens from MP is of course totally standard. When this TAGfish flats us on the button his
range will be reasonably wide.
• Small pairs
• Mid pairs
• Big aces
• Broadways
• Suited connectors
*We can once again exclude hands like AA, KK, QQ and AK because he will usually 3Bet us with these.
So when the flop comes queen high with tons of straight and flush draw possibilities I expect him to have a lot of
hands that caught a piece of this board.
Even though we won’t get folds all that often on a flop this wet and coordinated, we should still frequently make
the CBet for value versus a passive opponent like this. We don’t want to just give him a free turn card to hit his
draw or some weird two pair.
Versus one of the more aggressive regs I would be much more inclined to check/call on this flop. This is because
they will put in tons of action with weaker hands for us.
When the turn comes with an offsuit 5 we have a pretty marginal spot. While we do want to continue charging
the draws, it is hard to think of any worse value hands that will continue to call us now.
Also, by slowing down on the turn we create that deception value which will allow us to get calls from his 8x and
9x hands on the river.
The river card presents us with a very interesting situation because one of the major draws got there, the flush.
However the 5 doesn’t significantly change anything else. In fact it actually helps us in the rare case that villain
has a hand like 89. We now counterfeit that.
Now many micro stakes regs will get gun-shy here like in the previous example and just check and go for the
cheap showdown. This is the safe play after all.
We need to remember though that the strength of our hand is significantly under-represented after we checked
the turn. Our opponent will not be putting us on a hand as strong as we have.
So this means that we certainly could get some hero calls from 9x or even 8x hands. This is especially the case
if you have an aggressive table image.
If we check it to him though, he will pretty much always just check back with these hands and take the free
showdown. This means we lose money.
Furthermore, those of you who have read my previous book Modern Small Stakes will know that this is a clear
situation to adjust our bet sizing downwards as well.
A bet size of 30% of the pot for instance will stand a high chance of getting a call from some of these weak
bottom pair type hands. And a smaller bet size like this still amounts to about 5bb into a total pot size of around
15bb.
Remember that 5bb/100 is often considered to be a solid winrate in many micro stakes games these days. You
can make that amount in one hand by not missing a thin value bet like this.
14. The Stop and Go Bluff

Another common spot on the river where many players at the lower stakes leave money on the table is bluffing.
More specifically, they miss all kinds of profitable spots to win the pot with a simple bet. Since good hands are so
hard to make in this game it is mandatory that you are bluffing frequently in order to get ahead.
Now the most basic premise behind any good bluff is that it has to tell a believable story. What I mean by this is
that there should always be several value hands that you would play the exact same way.
In fact, the very best players are able to balance their bluff to value bet ratio on the river so well that it literally
becomes impossible for their opponents to make the correct play no matter what they do.
It is important to remember that there are still a lot of calling stations at the lower limits though, especially if you
are table selecting efficiently like I will show you later on.
Versus many regs with a high WTSD% (and basically all recs), you want your river betting range to include far
more value hands than bluffs.
But in today’s micro stakes games it is not uncommon to find yourself seated with many weaker players as well
who can be convinced to lay it down. If you are not bluffing the river often enough against them, then you are
throwing away a ton of value.
Example Hand #45
Hero raises from the button with:
Nit villain calls from the big blind

Flop:
Villain checks
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero checks
! 01
River:
Villain checks
Hero should BLUFF
Here is an excellent example of a spot where you should be frequently bluffing at the micros.
We raise a suited connector from late position and get called by a Nit in the blinds. As we discussed in the
preflop section, we need to be raising with a wide range from the button and cutoff when there are bad regs or
recs in the blinds.
• Small pocket pairs

• Mid pocket pairs
• Big Aces (AQ, AJ, AT)
• Broadways (KQ, KJ, QJ)
As usual we expect him to 3Bet us with his really big pairs (AA, KK, QQ). He will probably 3Bet us with AK too.

After he checks to us on the flop we have a clear CBet on this board with our open ended straight draw. This
should fold out all of his small pocket pairs, big aces and broadways.
Remember that most Nits fold too much on the flop and play weak overall. So when he flats us we do need to
give him some credit for a hand. Stuff like 99, TT and JJ makes a lot of sense given his line.
It is unlikely that he folds any of these hands on this total brick turn card so we make the decision to slow down
and just check it back.
After villain checks to us again on the river his range is pretty clearly defined at this point. His hand looks very
much like some sort of pair or overpair that just wants a cheap showdown.
This is why the great play in this spot is clearly to bluff.
The first reason why it is profitable to bluff here is because there is no way on earth that we are ever going to win
this hand if we check it back with our 6 high! This should always be an important consideration when deciding
whether to bluff or not.
But more importantly, our story is very believable on this ace river. There are several Ax hands that we will be
raising with from the button and then auto-CBetting on a dry flop like this.
It makes sense for us to then check these hands back on the turn and then bet the river when we get lucky and
spike the ace.
Lastly, before we even consider making a bluff in a spot like this we always want to make sure that our opponent
is indeed capable of folding some decent hands. Luckily most Nits are though.
It is important not to let the fear of being called prevent you from making a profitable bluff. Sometimes they will
call you. There is nothing that you can do about it.
! 03
And similar to value betting, you should be happy if you do get looked up by a better hand once in awhile. It
means that you are working hard to get every last penny out of them in these marginal spots.
That’s what winners do!
Example Hand #46
Whale villain raises from EP
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
! 04
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero bets
Villain calls
River:
Villain checks
Hero should BLUFF
! 05
Let’s look at a different spot versus a recreational player. Also, we are the preflop caller this time instead of the
raiser.
Now the age old advice has always been to never bluff the fish. And while this is still mostly true, it is not always
the case. There are some spots where it can be profitable and this is one of them.
We call on the button preflop with a nice suited connector versus a Whale who opened in early position. This is a
highly profitable spot to be in. There is absolutely no reason to ever 3Bet here. Let’s see a flop.
We end up flopping pretty good with a flush draw and a backdoor straight draw as well. When the rec player
CBets the flop we have several options.
While I am less likely to raise my draws against the fish (because they are less likely to fold), this line is certainly
a valid option here. As you can see, even if he does have a pair, we are only a very slight statistical underdog to
win the hand.
Our fold equity combined with the fact that we get to play the entire hand in position would easily turn a flop raise
into a profitable play.
! 06
But just flatting the flop CBet is a perfectly fine option as well. This keeps the size of the pot under control. And
since we are IP throughout the hand, we will have plenty of ways to win the pot later on whether we make our
hand or not.
The turn comes with a total brick card, the 2 of hearts. When villain checks to us we have a very easy bet here.
Why though you might be asking?
It is important to remember that the whole point of a float is to try and take away the pot later on. When you are
given a clear opportunity to win a pot like this, you should pretty much always be taking it.
And of course even if we do get called we still have plenty of equity heading to the river. We also have the
betting lead now which is important should we decide to bluff at the pot again.
When the river comes with an offsuit ten and villain checks to us again, we have an interesting decision to make.
The great play though, as you might have guessed, is indeed to bluff again.
Here’s why:
As you know from the discussion in the previous hand, I am not a fan of checking back rivers when we have no
chance at all of winning the pot.
That is most certainly the case again here with our 9 high. So if there is any conceivable chance that a bluff will
work, I would rather try it.
This player has also shown a lot of weakness throughout the hand. It is possible that he has some sort of weak
pair like 4x or 7x. But it is at least equally possible that he has a missed draw or ace high as well.
! 07
As usual you will want to know something about your opponent before trying to bluff them. We know that there
are plenty of fish out there who can’t fold a hand to save their life.
But if you think that there is any chance that this player can even lay down bottom pair, then you should go
ahead and make a play at this pot.
15. The River Bluff Raise

One of the most effective plays in this entire book, but also one of the most difficult to pull off correctly, is the
river bluff raise.
This is one of those high risk/high reward moves that constitutes the very essence of what I consider a great
play.
This is why it is essential that you understand how to do it properly. The standard warnings apply once again.
This play should be used extremely sparingly and only under the perfect conditions.
The reason why the river bluff raise is so wildly effective at the lower limits is because it is still viewed as an
extremely strong play. Even more so than the turn raise.
Almost nobody raises the river at these stakes as a bluff. So therefore, we will often get a ton of credit when we
do it. However there are some very important considerations to keep in mind.
! 08
Opponent has non-nut hands in his range
First off, understanding our opponent’s range on the river will be absolutely key here. We have to be highly
certain that villain has plenty of hands in his betting range which are not the nuts.
This simply won’t be the case for some players at these stakes. If you are playing online, then you can just
check the Aggression Factor stat.
If it is 1 or 2, then you do not want to be attempting this play. Your opponent is too passive, too likely to be
betting with a strong range.
Opponent has an ability to fold
Villain also has to be capable of folding a decent hand versus a raise. There are many players at the lower
stakes who will just call you down with their top pair or middle pair without even thinking too much about it.
We clearly don’t want to be attempting this play against people like that. Versus players that don’t have a fold
button your hands are tied. Your river raises have to be for value only.
We are telling a believable story
Lastly, we want to be telling a story that checks out with any thinking poker player. They should be able to
identify several value hands that we would play the exact same way.
One of the biggest reasons why bluffs fail is because they don’t pass the BS test. I often make big calls (as we
will discuss in a bit) simply because their bet doesn’t make any sense to me.
! 09
Always try to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes before making any kind of a bluff. Think about what they
think you have.
Let’s look at an example.
Example Hand #47
Nit villain raises in EP
Flop:
Villain CBets
Hero calls
! 10
Turn:
Villain checks
Hero bets
Villain calls
River:
Villain bets
Hero should BLUFF/RAISE
! 11
In this hand we call on the button with a small suited connector versus a Nit who opened in EP. For newer poker
players I would actually suggest just folding here.
But for those of you with a little more experience and who are more comfortable with your postflop abilities, this
is an opportunity to outplay a reg and win a pot.
This is especially true versus the bad regs like this. As we know, they will often have big leaks in their game
which allows us to take away pots in position with a variety of different lines.
Also, when they open in EP like this, they are usually going to be on a very tight range. This means that our
implied odds with a little suited connector like this could be through the roof.
On the flop we catch a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. We know from previous discussions that
we will always be at least calling here.
When the turn comes with an offsuit 9 and villain checks to us, we make a bet to try and take it down. Like we
just discussed above in example #46, whenever you are presented with an opportunity to win a pot, you should
be taking it.
Most of the time here our bet ends the hand. But not in this case. It is always a bit weird when our opponent bets
the flop and then check/calls the turn. What can they have?
Well, we know for sure what they don’t have. They don’t have a monster.
This is because a huge hand would usually continue betting on the turn. Or if they were trying to set a trap, then
they would check/raise the turn instead of check/calling in order to get more money in the pot.
So what this turn check/call really says is “Hey, I have something, it’s not great, but I am not ready to let it go yet
either.”
! 12
So with this important information in mind we still have a variety of different options to try and move our
opponent out of the pot on some rivers. And this is indeed one of those rivers.
When the final card comes an offsuit ten this creates a one card to a straight on the board. These situations are
always extremely black or white. Either you have it or you don’t. There is no in between.
Villain decides to lead into us on the river which is interesting. Let’s examine this a bit closer though.
Does it pass the BS test?
In order to find out what on earth this bet means we need to go back through the entire hand and look for the
clues that all players give off.
But it is even easier in this particular situation because we really only need to know one thing: Does he have a
straight or not?
So let’s start from the beginning again.
A Nit open raised from EP. How many 8x hands does he realistically have in his range when he does this?
Probably just one, pocket 8’s.
KQ also makes a straight on this board though, the nut straight in fact. This hand is also in his preflop range.
But the problem here is that a weak player like this is very likely to fold both of these hands when we float the
flop and then bet the turn on this board.
So his story is not adding up. What this bet by villain really looks like instead is something called a blocking bet.
! 13
Definition: “Blocking Bet” - A river bet disguised as strength by a mediocre hand that really just wants to see a
cheap showdown.
What villain really has here most of the time is top pair, an overpair or a set with hands like: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT,
99, AJ and KJ. These hands also make much more sense given his turn check/call line.
Therefore, assuming that villain is the type of player who is capable of finding the fold button sometimes, we
have a very profitable bluff/raise opportunity here to represent the straight.
But hang on a minute, is our story believable? Can we convince our opponent that we actually have the straight
ourselves? The answer is yes to both.
When we flat from the button both KQ and several 8x hands are in our range (98s, 87s and 88). And we would
often play these hands in the exact same way on the flop and turn.
Raise and take it down with 6 high.
16. The Thin River Value Raise

Now if you are going to get away with crazy bluffs like we saw in the last example, then your opponents
absolutely have to know that you will show up with the goods frequently as well.
In fact, it is important to remember that this is still the micros and there are plenty of complete calling stations
around. The vast majority of your river raises should therefore be for value.
! 14
Now of course raising on the river with the nuts is not exactly rocket science. If you have the best hand possible
or close to it, then of course you should raise.
But there are many more situations where we have just a good hand on the river (i.e. one pair) and there is
actually some thin value to be had from raising.
This is especially the case against highly aggressive regs who aren’t very good at letting a hand go. Bad LAGs
for instance.
Now once again, this is not a play that you want to be attempting very often. Like with bluff raising, it requires
excellent hand reading in order to make it work properly.
But when used correctly it can be another solid tool in your arsenal to outplay and confuse some of the regs.
Example Hand #48
LAG villain calls from the big blind

Flop:
Villain checks
Hero CBets
Villain calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero calls
! 16
River:
Villain bets
Hero should RAISE
This hand is an excellent example of a spot where we might be able to squeeze out a little bit of extra value on
the river by raising.
Preflop we raise from MP with my 2nd favorite hand in the game and get called by a LAG reg in the big blind.
This type of player is going to have a wide range of hands here:
• Small pairs
• Mid pairs
• Big aces
• Broadways
• Suited connectors
• Suited aces
Basically he will be flatting (or 3Betting us) with a lot of different hands in order to defend his blinds. And this is a
good thing, you should be doing the same.
! 17
The flop comes very draw heavy with a bunch of middle and low cards. But when villain checks to us we have a
very clear CBet for value.
The turn comes with an offsuit queen and villain decides to lead into us. What could he possibly have here?
Well, LAGs are well known for taking a variety of different weird lines like this with a wide range of hands. So
honestly, it could mean a lot of things.
He could have anything from a pocket pair to a flush draw, straight draw, combo draw, queen, set or a complete
bluff.
While it is tempting to put in the raise here there is also a lot of value to be had against an aggressive player by
disguising our range and allowing him to bluff away his money. So we decide to just flat the turn instead.
When the river comes with an offsuit 4 which also pairs the board and he leads into us again, we have a decision
to make. Clearly we are always at least calling here.
But is there value to be had in raising? Yes, and here’s why.
First off, all of the major draws missed and the paired board means that all two pair hands are now counterfeited
as well. So unless he is sandbagging a monster (set, quads or AA), we got him.
Also, given the way that we played the turn, our hand is extremely under-repped and we can definitely expect
calls from worse. This is also the type of player who could be trying to value bet wide here with a queen or some
other pair.
So all things considered we should go ahead and raise the river here for some thin value. Even if he folds a
majority of the time, at least we are giving him an opportunity to make a bad decision.

17. The Big Call - Neutralizing Their Aggression

The final river play that I want to talk about is arguably the most important one of all for beating the stronger regs
in today’s games. This is making the big call on the river.
As the online games in particular have gotten more aggressive in recent years there are a lot more players, even
at the lower stakes, who are willing to fire multiple barrels without much of a hand.
I need to stress that this is still a minority of players. For instance, you will be very hard pressed to find many
Nits or TAGfish who are capable of running big bluffs unless they are on massive tilt.
These players are still typically very passive and like to see cheap showdowns unless they have a really big
hand.
In fact most of the time with these player types, if they are happily shoving big portions of their stack in the
middle, you can be pretty confident that they have exactly what they are representing, the nuts.
So it is extremely rare (almost never really) that I am going to make a big multi-street call down with a weak
hand against these kinds of players.
The player types against whom the big call is most effective are almost always going to be TAGs, LAGs and
Maniacs. Highly aggressive players.
But even some of these players might not be capable of running a really big bluff. So we have to be sure.
So once again, if I am playing online then the Aggression Factor (AF) stat is the most useful here. Make sure
you have a minimum sample size of 100 hands.
! 19
AF General Guidelines
• 1 = Very passive
• 2 = Slightly passive
• 3 = Slightly aggressive
• 4 = Highly aggressive
• 5 = Insanely aggressive
I will pretty much never even consider making a big call versus an AF 1 or 2. They will have the nuts too often. I
am looking for an AF of 3 or higher.
I will also look at other stats like CBet% by street. These should be well over 50% on all betting rounds. Make
sure to check the sample size before using these stats as well.
If I am playing live, then I am looking for players who seem to be involved in a lot of pots and often they are the
ones doing the betting or raising.
Lastly, my opponent’s range and the board runout will be very important considerations as well. I will be asking
myself if they are telling a credible story or not. And how many value hands versus bluffs will they show up with.
The reason why big call downs are so effective against the aggressive regs in today’s games is because it uses
their main weakness (too much aggression) against them.
Often the best way to beat the aggressive regs in today’s games is to turn into a calling station against them. You
don’t want to raise them and give them an easy out. You want to just let them keep firing their dead money bluffs.
Let’s check out a few examples.

Example Hand #49
TAG villain raises in MP
Hero calls from the small blind with:
Flop:
Hero checks
Villain CBets
Hero calls
! 21
Turn:
Hero checks
Villain bets
Hero calls
River:
Hero checks
Villain bets
Hero should CALL
! 22
In this hand we flat with QJ suited from the small blind versus an MP raise by a TAG. As we know from several
previous discussions we can choose to either 3Bet or call versus one of the better regs in a spot like this.
We flop pretty good with top pair decent kicker on an uncoordinated two-tone board and check it to our
opponent. After he makes his CBet we could consider raising but just calling is superior for a few reasons.
Firstly, we are so likely to be ahead of villain’s range here (often he has nothing at all) that it is better to just
check/call and let him bluff off some more chips.
Secondly, this is indeed the type of aggressive player who will continue betting on later streets a high percentage
of the time. If we raise at any point then we just give him an easy fold.
On the turn we are presented with a similar situation. There is very little chance that this offsuit 8 helped improve
villain’s hand in any way. Just flat calling and keeping villain’s bluffing range as wide as possible is once again
the best play.
The river comes with an offsuit king and we have an interesting decision to make. Should we lead out? Should
we check/call?
Well, leading out doesn’t really make a lot of sense because there is very little chance that we get looked up by a
worse hand here. We are probably only going to get action on the rare occasion that he shares the queen as
well or somehow hit the king on the river.
But furthermore, this river card is the ultimate scare card for an aggressive player to bluff at after we have shown
weakness yet again. So there is good reason to believe that he will stick some more dead money in the pot if we
check it to him.
! 23
So check/calling the river in this example is indeed the great play. Taking a hand like top pair and just becoming
a complete calling station is increasingly becoming the best way to beat some of the highly aggressive regs in
today’s small stakes games.
It uses their primary weakness against them. Make sure to give them plenty of rope to hang themselves and
then don’t be afraid to make the big call.
Example Hand #50
Maniac villain raises in EP
Hero calls from the cutoff with:
Flop:
! 24
Villain CBets
Hero calls
Turn:
Villain bets
Hero calls
River:
Villain bets
Hero should CALL
! 25
Here is another spot where we are faced with a big river decision versus a highly aggressive opponent.
We already know that this is the type of player who will be raising preflop with a huge amount of hands. So with
66 in position we have a clear call.
When we flop reasonably well like this (just one overcard) we have another routine call on the flop. Even though
we are likely to be ahead here it is better to let an aggressive player with a wide range continue to bluff at it.
On the turn another overcard falls and predictably villain bets again. The standard play here is just to fold. And
versus most passive Nits and TAGfish that is exactly what I would do.
In order to beat the highly aggressive regs and Maniac fish like this though, we can’t just lay down and die every
time a scary card comes along. We have to be willing to make some big calls or they will just run us over.
Also, this is a very action heavy board at this point. This means that there are a ton of different potential draws
that villain could have such as:
• Any 2 hearts
• Open ended straight draws: QJ, 42, 64
• Gutshot straight draws: AQ, AJ, J9, A4, A2, 74, 62
We should expect a Maniac to double barrel with pretty much all of them and with plenty of other hands as well.
The river card is a total brick unless he somehow has a 3 in his hand and we face another big bet. This is one of
those spots where we just simply have to make the big call. There is no point in calling on the turn if we are
going to fold this river.
! 26
Yes, sometimes he will flip over a ten, a king or even a 3 and it is going to suck to lose a pretty big pot. But this is
the price that we must pay sometimes in order to beat the aggressive players. It will get expensive and
sometimes we will be wrong.
However most of the time a lunatic rec player like this is going to be triple barreling with a missed draw, a worse
pair or even nothing at all. You have to trust your instincts in a spot like this and don’t be afraid to make the big
call.
! 27
The Professional Poker Playbook

Not all success in poker is actually created at the poker tables. In fact all top level pros these days know that
what you do away from the tables is just as important, if not more.
And there are 4 keys to your success in this area which I will be covering one by one below:
• How to study poker and plug your leaks

• How to find the most fishy games
• How to manage your poker finances
• How to manage your emotions at the tables (i.e. stop tilting)
I have worked incredibly hard in all of these areas throughout my poker career. And I feel that this is one of the
biggest reasons why I have been able to not only survive, but also thrive in this game as a professional for over
a decade now.
Want to know the best part though? You don’t actually have to be great in any of these areas at the lower stakes
in order to have big time success.
You just have to be willing to put in the most basic effort. The reason why is that most of your competition at
these limits will just ignore all of this stuff completely.
For instance, most people don’t study their game at all, they sit down and play at any random poker table, they
manage their bankroll poorly and they tilt like crazy when a little bit of adversity strikes.
This is why even the most basic improvements in these areas can yield you a massive edge over your
competition in today’s games.

Believe me, the real pros out there are not neglecting this stuff. They are willing to put in the effort away from the
tables and it shows directly in their results.
Let’s dive right into it!
18. How to Study Your Poker Game and Plug Your Leaks
Studying your own game (and your opponents) is by far the best way to get better at poker in my opinion. This is
because it allows you to learn from your own mistakes and actually change the actions that you make at the
poker tables.
And you can’t know what to change if you don’t study your hands to see what you did right and wrong in the first
place!
Now if you play online this is one of the main reasons why I recommend using a poker tracking program like
PokerTracker or Hold’em Manager.
What these programs do is collect every hand that you play and then allow you to review them step by step
whenever you want. These programs also provide you with tons of highly specific data and statistics on you and
your opponents.
You can also use the HUD (heads up display) in order to put this information right beside your opponents at the
poker tables.
Having this information on hand is incredibly useful in certain spots as we saw numerous times throughout this
book. I will have much more on how to setup your HUD in a bit.
! 29
But I have spent countless hours over the years simply studying my own poker game and other players in these
programs. In fact I developed every single strategy in this book in large part because of this.
The tracking program that I personally use is PokerTracker 4.
It is the most sophisticated and easy to use poker tracking program out there in my opinion. It allows you to
study your opponents in depth and analyze every aspect of your own game.
It also includes extensive filters in order to help you find out exactly where your problem areas are. I am going to
show you how to use these in a moment as well.
Lastly, these programs are vital for an online player because they also allow you to keep track of your results
and graph them too. This way you always know exactly where you stand. No more guesswork.
If you are at all serious about online poker, then I would recommend at least checking out the free trial. You can
go download that right here.
How to Review Your Poker Sessions
One of the main reasons that I use PokerTracker is to review my poker sessions. Now I don’t review every
session. But I do review most of my losing ones. And the reason why is because I want to learn from my
mistakes.
In poker: “We either win or we learn.” Make this your motto.
When I win, I know that I probably did a lot of things right. Most people tend to play well when the cards are
falling their way.
! 30
However when I lose, I might have played some hands poorly. It is very possible that I just got unlucky and that
is the reason that I lost. But I want to make sure. I need to be sure. And you should too.
Now before you can start reviewing your poker hands you need to make sure that you are downloading the hand
histories from the poker site.
The hand histories are the raw text files that PokerTracker actually reads and generates all the statistics from.
And this is also the data that it uses to allow you to play back your hands and analyze them in detail.
On most poker rooms there will be an option to simply download your hand histories as you play. Make sure that
this is enabled and that they are being stored in a place on your computer that you will remember.
After that go into PokerTracker and make sure that the hands are being imported into the program.
Make sure that you select the Play Poker tab at the top and then double check the settings for the site that you
play on below it.
Lastly, click Get Hands While Playing and all of your hands will be automatically collected by PokerTracker.
! 31
The next thing that you want to do is configure the settings so that you only get hands from your last session.
Click on the View Stats tab this time and make sure that you set the date for today and for the stakes you are
playing.
This will immediately bring up all of the hands that you played in the box below. Hit the won column to sort by
biggest winning and biggest losing pots.
! 32
I usually spend far more time reviewing the hands that I lost rather than the hands that I won. The reason why is
because I think that I am much more likely to have made mistakes in them.
In order to pull up the replayer window and start reviewing your hands simply right click on a hand and then
select replay hand.
You can also use the shift button on your keyboard to select as many hands as you want and put them all in the
replayer at once (recommended).
Now as I analyze each hand step by step I am going to be asking myself many of the same questions that we
discussed so often in this book.
For instance:
• What is the player type?

• What is my opponent’s range here?
• What is the great play in this situation?
If I decide that I made optimal decisions at each stage of the hand then I will simply accept the result and move
on to the next one.
However, if I feel like I made a 2nd or 3rd best decision (calling when I should be raising etc.), then I can learn
from this when I encounter a similar spot in the future.
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that I will actually make the right play next time in the heat of the moment.
Poker after all is an easy game in theory.

But when the pressure is on and you might be tilted too, it can be difficult to always make the correct play, even
when you know it is right.
So the point of this analysis is to keep reminding yourself of the mistakes that are costing you money. At some
point you will get so sick and tired of losing that you will make the necessary adjustments.
For instance, it took me a long, long time to finally get it through my head to fold when I double barrel and get
raised. This is despite the fact that I had seen the losses over and over again in PokerTracker.
One day I eventually got so sick of being shown the nuts in these spots every time that I just started folding. Now
I do not have this leak in my game anymore and my results have improved because of it.
This is the only way to move forward. Most people just keep making the same bad calls, silly bluffs and missing
value bets for years and years and never learn. And this is a big part of the reason why they never end up
getting the results that they want in this game.
This is why regular session review is so important. It forces you to take an impartial and honest look at all the
poor decisions that you are making. It forces self-accountability and change. And this is ultimately reflected in
your results at the poker tables.
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Plugging The Leaks in Your Game
Another incredibly valuable feature in PokerTracker is the ability to see exactly where your leaks are and then
start plugging them.
More specifically what this means is that you can run filters over your entire database of hands and find the
exact spots that are giving you the most trouble.
And even more importantly you can see the raw data in these situations for yourself. Are you showing a profit or
a loss? The numbers simply do not lie.
So for instance you can analyze situations where you:
• 3Bet OOP
• Got all the money in preflop
• Double barreled
• Floated the flop and then bet the turn
• Bluffed the river
And so on.
You can also drill down even further if you want by studying only one specific hand.
So for instance you could filter for AK all in preflop and see if you are winning or losing. The possibilities are
endless and the data you get back is insanely useful.

In order to bring up the filter box in PokerTracker make sure that you are on the View Stats tab. Set it to All
Dates this time. Lastly, click on More Filters… at the bottom.
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I spend most of my time setting filters under the Actions and Opportunities tab. This is where you can set up
specific scenarios like the ones that I just mentioned.
! 37
Now once again I am going to focus most of my attention on the situations where I am currently not profitable.
For instance, if it shows that I am losing money when I double barrel on the turn, then I have a problem. This is a
leak in my game and something that I need to work on.
So I will filter for this exact situation and then stick a bunch of hands into the replayer and start analyzing them
one by one.
Once again I want to know:
• What is the player type?

• What is my opponent’s range here?
• What is the great play in this situation?
This will help me find out why I am losing money when I double barrel the turn. Perhaps I am putting them on the
wrong range. Perhaps I am not exploiting their weaknesses correctly (i.e. trying to bluff a calling station).
I will often spend hours analyzing just one specific situation like this and reviewing dozens of hands. The
patterns eventually emerge and I can understand why I am losing. From there I can start making adjustments.
And in order to make sure that I actually made the right changes to my game I will review the data again in a
month or so. This will hopefully tell me that I am now profitable in this situation.
One important point to note here is that some situations in poker just won’t be profitable no matter what you do.
Playing from the blinds is the most classic example.
You aren’t going to win from the blinds in poker no matter how good you are. Due to the basic structure of the
game, these are simply un-winnable positions at the poker table.
! 38
However, poker is still very much a game of inches and so losing less can have a large positive impact on your
overall winrate. So you can still look to improve in situations like this even though there is no way to actually turn
a profit.
The bottom line is that if you really want to find out what is holding you back at the poker tables, then this is the
absolute best way to do it. Analyzing key situations like this has been ground zero in my development into a
winning poker player over the years.
Something that I also recommend doing is reviewing how some of the best regs play in these situations as well.
The great thing about these tracking programs is that you collect tons of hands on them as well.
These players are winning big for a reason. Study what they do!
Don’t leave your success in poker to chance. Put in the work away from the tables in PokerTracker and start
fixing your mistakes.
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HUD Setup - The Critical Advantage
The last thing that I want to discuss regarding poker tracking programs is the use of a HUD. Once again these
are the stats that you can place beside your opponent on the table in online poker.
Here is an example of what my PokerTracker HUD looks like in action (names of my opponents are blacked out
for their privacy).
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All of these numbers correspond to HUD stats that I have mentioned several times throughout this book such as
VPIP, 3Bet%, AF, WTSD% and so on.
Now, do you actually need to have all of these stats on your screen in order to beat online poker? Let me assure
you that the answer is no.
And if you are just starting out in poker I actually wouldn’t even worry about it too much for now anyways. Just
focus on getting the fundamentals down first.
But there comes a point when you realize that having all of this information available to you like this can only
help you make better and more profitable decisions.
We already saw numerous times throughout this book just how much easier it is to make bluffs or a big call if you
know what player type you are up against. We also saw how this data can help us predict their actions in many
key situations.
So for me, any time I am playing online poker my HUD is running. I probably don’t even look at it for 90% of the
decisions that I make.
However, it can be a critically important tool to have in my arsenal in some key situations. It simply helps me
make better informed decisions which ultimately leads to better results.
This is especially important in the world of low stakes online poker with multi-tabling and thousands of different
opponents. You just simply can’t keep track of them all.
The bottom line is that if you take online poker seriously, then you should be using a HUD. Using one has easily
saved me thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars at the poker tables over the years.
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I have written a comprehensive guide on my website which includes video walkthroughs on how to setup your
HUD, what all the stats mean and how to start using them at the poker tables.
You can also download my own personal custom HUD and start using it for yourself. You can find it all here.
19. Playing in the Right Poker Games - Finding the Fish

Another crucial key to your success at the micros today is finding the recreational players. They are also often
referred as the fun players or simply, the fish.
The reason why this is so important is because the majority of your profits in poker will come from these players.
If you choose to disregard game selection and play in tough games full of regs, then there just isn’t any strategy
on earth that you use in order to crush the games.
And the reason why is because these players simply do not make enough big mistakes for you to ever gain a
substantial edge over them.
Sure you can use several of the plays mentioned in this book to bluff them or value bet them more in some key
spots. This will definitely help your winrate.
But the real money in poker comes from the guys who are making the huge fundamental errors that only the fish
make such as:
• Playing way too many hands preflop

• Calling way too much and chasing every draw postflop
• Zero discipline, tilting badly and so on
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To put this in perspective, from years of experience studying my opponents in PokerTracker, I have found that
even the very worst regs tend to lose at no more than about 5bb/100.
The recreational players on the other hand regularly have loss-rates of 25bb/100, 50bb/100 or even higher!
What this means in plain language is that they are losing their money 5 or even 10 times faster than the very
worst regs.
This is why if being successful and winning big in this game is your goal, then you absolutely must place a
priority on playing in good games that have plenty of fish in them.
How to Easily Spot the Fish
In order to do this it is very important that you are able to quickly identify the recreational players.
Along with the HUD stats that I mentioned in the player types section, there are many other clear giveaways that
do not require anything but your observation skills.
Here are a few of them:
• Buying in short
• Frequently limping into the pot
• Posting a blind out of position
• Severely under-betting the pot postflop
• One-tabling online
! 43
If you see any of these things then it is almost always a dead giveaway that it is a fun player.
Good poker players will almost always buy-in for the maximum amount which is usually 100 big blinds online.
The reason why is because this allows them to win the most. They would never want to handicap themselves.
Fish on the other hand will buy-in for all sorts of weird shorter amounts and they also won’t top up either when
they dip below their original buyin.
Good players will also almost never limp into the pot. It is simply a proven fact that it is more profitable to raise
and take control of the hand.
You can filter for this in PokerTracker (raising preflop versus limping) and see the results for yourself by the way.
Your winnings will likely be at least double when raising.
Good players will also always wait for the blinds to come to them before posting and getting dealt in. Rec players
though will just post right away in order to get involved in the action faster.
But what this means is that they end up double paying the blinds every time they join a new table. This is like
volunteering to pay your taxes twice. Nobody who is serious about the game would ever do this.
Good players will also always make a mathematically significant bet size when trying to win a pot (usually 50%
of the pot or more in a cash game).
Fish on the other hand will often bet extremely small amounts or even the bare minimum. This gives anyone else
at the table clear mathematical odds to call with any two cards.
Lastly, and while there are some exceptions, recreational players are far more likely than regs to be playing on
only one or two tables online. Good players tend to multi-table in order to multiply their earnings.
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Most poker sites allow you to search your opponents to find out what tables they are playing on. This little bit of
free information can sometimes tell you a lot about someone.
How to Find the Tables With the Fish
So now that you know how to spot the rec players how do you actually find the tables that they are seated at?
Well first things first, the easiest way to improve your chances of finding tables full of fish is to play on the right
poker site.
Some online sites are well known for being soft and attracting a lot of rec players and pure gamblers. Some
other sites though have a reputation for being full of tough aggressive regulars.
So simply choosing the right poker site to play on can actually have a huge impact on your winnings.
I have already compiled a list on my website of all the poker sites where you will find the most fish in my
experience. You can find that right here.
There are a couple of other ways to improve your chances of finding the fish though as well.
Always Tag the Fish
The first thing that you should be doing is tagging the recreational players immediately every time you encounter
one of them at the poker tables.
Nearly all poker sites have some sort of tagging or coloring system which will allow you to mark a specific player.

And the great thing is that these tags remain every time you log onto that site even if it is years down the road.
You can also see them in the lobby before you even sit down at the table.
On some sites I have tagged so many players over the years that I know right away which tables have fish on
them and which don’t. This makes table selection incredibly easy for me.
Start Your Own Tables
Starting your own tables is still one of the absolute best ways to attract the fish. And in order to understand why
this is so effective you just need to see the game like they do.
When a recreational player wants to play online poker they often look for the tables which only have a couple of
people on them. This is because they know that they can sit down and start playing right away.
Remember, the recs play poker purely for fun. They play after work and on the weekends to unwind.
So the last thing they want to be doing is sitting around on waiting lists. That’s what regs do. Fish want to be
dealt in right away!
Therefore, often you can make the fish come right to you by simply sitting down at an empty table. Once the fun
player sits the table will usually fill up fast and you have a great game to play in.
Snipe the Jesus Seat
There is nothing more profitable in poker than playing against the recreational players. They are like rocket fuel
for your winrate.
! 46
But if you want to truly print money against them then you also need to get the best seat against them as well.
And this is always going to be the one on their direct left. This is also often referred to as the “Jesus seat.”
If you can get this highly sought after spot at the table, then you can isolate them, value bet them, bluff them and
basically be in total control of every hand.
There is an absolutely huge advantage in poker to having direct position on someone. And when there is also a
wide discrepancy in skill level like this, then it is simply going to be a massacre.
So there is actually a very simple strategy that I use in order to grab this seat. And it can have a dramatic impact
on your winrate as well.
This is done via the short handed tables. These are the tables with 1 or 2 people sitting at them. However, I
won’t be starting the tables this time. Instead I will be watching them.
These tables have typically been started by another reg. In fact, they might be employing the exact same
strategy that I just discussed above, trying to attract the fish.
So this approach just takes that thinking one step further. I will let them start the tables and then as soon as the
fish sits down, I will immediately grab the seat on the left.
Boom, you immediately have the best situation in all of poker to print money. This very simple strategy, if used
consistently, will have a dramatic and immediate impact on your winnings.
The bottom line is that in today’s games all the real pros know that in order to win big you have to take game
selection very seriously.
You need to always make sure that there is at least one recreational player at your table at all times. And
preferably get position on them as well.
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Usually this isn’t much of a problem in live games. But online these days there is simply no guarantee that a fish
will be sitting there waiting for you even if you are playing at the very lowest limits.
The biggest winners are willing to put in the effort to make sure that they are playing in the best games. This is
reflected directly in their results.
20. Poker Finance - The Pro’s Edge

Another massively important skill that all pros take seriously is poker finance. This is the ability to manage your
poker bankroll correctly and consistently move up the limits in order to play in bigger games and win even more.
One of the first things that you need to do is start viewing you poker bankroll as capital, not money. As a poker
player you are essentially running a small business. Your poker bankroll is simply a tool to be used for your
progress in this game.
This is why I suggest that you do not cash out any money from your bankroll until you have moved up several
limits at least and you are consistently making a significant profit from this game.
Because the bottom line is that if your goal is to move up the stakes and achieve big success in poker, then
every cash out is directly preventing you from doing that.
What you need instead are clearly defined goals for what you want to get out of this game. And then, after you
achieve those goals, you can start to reward yourself a little bit.

Your One Year Plan to Quickly Move up the Stakes
So let’s start by creating a financial plan for your poker success.
Now firstly, people often under estimate the impact of variance in today’s games. By this I mean the natural
swings or ups and downs that go along with playing poker.
In today’s games it is not uncommon to see solid winning regs having 10 or even 20 buy-in downswings. This is
why the age old advice to have 20 buyins in your bankroll clearly needs to be readjusted.
When I use the term “buyin” by the way I am referring to 100 big blinds which is the maximum amount that you
can put on the table in most online cash games.
So for instance, if you are playing NL10 online where the big blind is 10 cents, then one buy-in would be $10.
I would suggest having a bare minimum of 30 buyins for whatever game you are playing but frankly 40 or 50 is
even better.
This will allow you to handle the natural swings of the game much better. Because it doesn’t matter who you are,
losing a large chunk of your bankroll is not easy to deal with psychologically.
But if you are always well bankrolled for whatever game that you are playing in, then it will be a lot easier to
handle. You won’t need to panic every time you hit a routine downswing.
I would also suggest setting some clear targets for when to move up.
! 49
For example:
Let’s say that you decide on 40 buyins as your minimum bankroll requirement for any limit that you play. So you
have a starting bankroll of $80 at NL2 which is the lowest stake online.
You would then move up to the next limit at the following bankroll levels:
• NL5 - $200
• NL10 - $400
• NL25 - $1000
• NL50 - $2000
• NL100 - $4000
This gives you a solid game plan to reach NL100 where you can start making some significant money in poker.
The biggest winners in this game make thousands of dollars per month.
And furthermore, for somebody with a strong work ethic who is highly determined to succeed in this game, it is
possible to achieve this goal in a single calendar year.
Assuming you start at the very bottom (NL2), you only need to successfully move up 5 times in order to get to
NL100. So if you focus on reaching the next level once every two months, this plan can be completed inside one
year.
You can of course get there much quicker if you only wish to retain 30 buyins or 20 buyins per level. However,
your risk of ruin will go up significantly. And the swings will be much harder to deal with as well.
The bottom line is that you should set clear goals like this so that you always know exactly what you are working
towards.
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21. The Mental Advantage - Unbreakable

The final key to your success at the poker tables is emotional control. More specifically, keeping yourself off tilt.
This is such a large subject that entire books can and have been written on this topic. It is also one of the very
biggest reasons why some people reach the pinnacle of this game, while most others never make it out of the
micros.
Let me talk a little bit about just how far the rabbit hole goes in this game.
In my 10+ years of playing professional poker (and 10+ million hands now) I have had countless stretches where
I lost money for weeks on end. And even a few downswings that lasted for a month or more, testing the very
limits of my sanity.
And this is while playing very, very heavy volume. For most of my poker career I have been known as one of the
sickest online grinders around, playing upwards of 30 tables at a time for hours on end every single day.
Losing over periods of time like this, and especially over samples sizes this large, will make you question
absolutely everything about your game and probably make you lose almost all confidence in your abilities as
well.
I know because it certainly did for me.
But no matter how bad it got though I have always been able to come out of it alive due to one powerful but
simple truth that I always tell myself:

“I know that all these people are eventually going to have to deal with a downswing just as
bad as this one day.
And I know that most of them won’t handle it nearly as well as I do. In fact most of them
won’t even survive it at all. They will tilt away their bankrolls long before they ever see the
light of day again.
I will survive this though, no matter how long it lasts. I won’t ever let this game break me like
that. This is why I am a professional. This is why I win.”
The ability to control your emotions in poker is the most important skill that you can have. In my many, many
years of playing, coaching and teaching this game, this is the #1 difference between winning and losing players
in my opinion.
And it is even more important in today’s games. The reason why is that the edges are a lot smaller now. Nobody
really plays that bad anymore except for the odd clueless fish.
So what this ultimately means is that you cannot afford to tilt away money anymore with undisciplined bad calls,
silly bluffs and the like. You will simply get eaten alive in the long run if you cannot learn to manage your
emotions better than this.
The biggest edge now in today’s games is the mental game. The biggest winners (while they are good players)
are almost invariably the ones who also tilt the least.
The vast majority of regs, who hover somewhere around breakeven, routinely sabotage their entire poker career
by spewing off large amounts of money every time adversity strikes. In fact they do it so frequently, and in such
subtle ways, that they barely even notice it.
! 52
So it is absolutely crucial that you find ways to stay in control of your emotions better than your opponents at the
micros. And there are several ways to go about this.
Understanding Variance
The first thing that you have to do is begin to understand the real nature of variance in poker. This is the
technical term for the natural ups and downs in this game.
Now what I just described above is the most extreme variety of it. It is extraordinarily rare that a winning player
will lose for weeks or months in cash games.
Most of the time in poker variance is much more harmless. Often you will get unlucky for a session or two (bad
beats, coolers etc.) and then things will settle down for awhile.
But most poker players will tell you that they are the unluckiest person to ever play the game. And this is
because our brains are hardwired to vividly recall all of the horrible bad beats we receive but quickly forget about
all of the times that we got lucky.
And most people think that you need to hit a miracle card on the river in order to “get lucky.” That is not the case
at all.
All of those times that your AA held up as a 70% or 80% favorite you actually did get a little bit lucky. It is not
normal that you should win this every single time.
The only thing that actually has any meaning in reality though is what happens in the long run. And the evidence
is very clear.

I have run extensive analysis of my equity adjusted winnings in PokerTracker over sample sizes in the millions.
And it is actually kind of incredible just how close my actual results are to my equity adjusted (or luck adjusted)
results.
In other words, over truly significant sample sizes poker is an unquestionably fair game. You get exactly what
you put in.
But over smaller sample sizes (5k hands, 20k hands, even 100k hands) it can be a very different story. In my
experience literally anything can happen over smaller samples like this. You can be massively above or
massively below EV.
The long run in poker can be very long.
This is What You Signed Up For
But I get it. Believe me I do.
It doesn’t matter what I say here, it doesn’t matter what the raw data over millions of hands says, losing still
sucks. We all hate it.
I still often get pissed off, like really pissed off, even with just a couple of bad beats in a row. This is despite the
fact that I know beyond any doubt that I am a long term winning poker player and this is just routine variance.
And this is why each time we sit down to play poker we need to remind ourselves that this is what we signed up
for.

To put it bluntly, the game of poker does not have a soul or a conscience. It doesn’t care about your feelings one
bit. Poker is cold mathematical odds and statistics.
Each hand is a completely distinct independent event. Nobody is owed anything. There is no past and there is
no future.
And believe me when I say that anything, anything, can happen in the short run. But this is actually one of the
most beautiful parts of the game though and the primary reason why it is so profitable.
Because you see, poker is structured in such a way that the bad players get lucky just often enough to blame all
of their losses on bad luck.
This prevents them from ever addressing the real problem which is bad play. And this in turn keeps them coming
back again and again for more. As they often say, “denial runs the entire industry.”
The Coin Test
If you really want to try and understand mathematical variance in poker then you can run a simple experiment. I
call it the coin test.
Basically you flip a coin 1000 times and record the results. I am not ashamed to admit that I have actually done
this!
Perhaps I have way too much time on my hands. In any case though I used a typical coin, a Canadian quarter.
“Heads” on one side, “Tails” on the other.
I managed to get it to land either heads or tails 6, 7 and even 8 times in a row at some points during this sample
size.

How is this possible though? Was there something wrong with the coin? No, these were just mathematically
possible aberrations within a large sample.
If I had truly lost my mind and decided to flip the coin 10k times I am sure that I could have hit heads or tails 10,
12 or even 15 times in a row at some point.
This is the exact same thing that happens in poker. Play enough hands and you will eventually hit stretches that
don’t even seem real. Yes, you just lost with AA for the 7th time in a row.
This is an astronomically rare event. But is it possible? Absolutely. And if you play enough hands, then I
guarantee that it will happen to you.
Now the bottom line though is that you can’t actually control any of this. So the only real question is how are you
going to react to it?
This is a powerful lesson for life as well when you really think about it. All sorts of really good (and really bad)
things will happen to you throughout the course of your life. Your levels of success and happiness will be largely
determined by how you react to them.
As long we are human the lengthy negative variance that can occur sometimes in this game will affect us on
some level. There is simply no such thing as a tilt free perfect poker player.
However, there are several strategies that the pros use to handle it better than others.
! 56
1. Knowing When to Quit
Often we are told as kids that “quitters never win.” Well in poker the exact opposite is true. Learning how to be a
good quitter is actually one of the most important keys to your success.
Because no matter how much of an emotionless robot you try to become, bad beats and coolers are going to get
to you after awhile. And this will cause you to tilt and play poorly as well.
So if you can make sure that you remove yourself from the poker table before this starts happening, then you
can almost instantly fix the large majority of your tilt problems.
So how do you recognize when you are about to drop off that proverbial cliff into really bad decision making and
poor play?
Well there are several key signs to look out for:
• Playing more hands than you normally do

• Playing more aggressively than you normally do
• Playing more timidly than you normally do
• Making bad calls even when you know you are beat
Tilt can manifest itself in multiple ways. But usually it results in overaggressive play, trying to “make something
happen.”
For instance, many tight players will turn into LAGs all of the sudden. Usually with disastrous results since this is
a style of play that they are totally unfamiliar with.

But tilt doesn’t always have to include increased aggression and trying to force things. It can go the other way
too.
Some people will go into a shell and start playing too weak because they have that skeletons in the closet
syndrome. They have convinced themselves that they are going to lose every hand somehow.
This form of tilt causes them to lose tons of value in spots where they should have won a much bigger pot. The
common thread between both of these forms of tilt (overly aggressive and overly passive) is negative self talk.
That is, when you are on tilt your inner stream of dialogue will often be in a very bad place. Anger, frustration and
hopelessness will dominate the narrative.
So it is very important that you are able to recognize these signs of tilt and remove yourself from the poker tables
before they start to occur.
Your ability to play the game profitably will go downhill quickly when your mind starts going to these dark
negative places. Increased aggression or passivity are the outward signs of tilt but your inner self talk is the most
telling of all.
It is important that you recognize this and remind yourself that you are not in the right condition to play. The
games will always be there tomorrow.
Look, put it this way. You have worked very hard at improving your game both at the tables and away from them.
Are you going to let yourself throw all of that away over a few momentary emotions?
Do this for yourself. Quit now.
! 58
2. Setting a Stop Loss
The best plans don’t always get executed in reality when it really matters though. This is why it is necessary that
you also have a backup plan in place for when to quit. And specifically this is to make use of something called a
“stop loss.”
A stop loss essentially means is that you are only willing to risk a certain amount of buyins in one poker session.
The amount of buyins is kind of arbitrary and up to you. But I would suggest using 5 as a default. If you know
that you have a lot of issues with tilt, then set it at 3 instead.
Now if you play live poker this is pretty easy to do. Don’t bring more than 3 or 5 buyins for the game to the
casino. If you have a rough session and lose that, then the day is done. Simple.
If you play online though, then it will require a little bit more discipline because everybody should always have
many more buyins than this in their account.
But what a stop loss will do is prevent you from going over that cliff where your ability to even play profitably
might be in doubt. This is where most people end up losing the most. This is the stuff that kills bankrolls and
dreams in this game.
Because the thing is, nobody ever sits down and starts making emotionally charged irrational decisions right
away. No, it is a series of bad beats or coolers that sets them off.
The tilt tends to build slowly over time. And at some point they will hit a breaking point and snap. This is the point
of no return when you absolutely 100% should not be playing poker.
I gotta warn you though, setting a stop loss won’t be easy. It won’t feel good to quit in the moment. We all have
that natural inclination to want to win it back, to get even.
! 59
But believe me, Captain Comeback rarely works out very well in poker because you are playing in one of your
worst mental states.
You have to understand that a stop loss is a preventative measure much like having a designated driver for a
night out on the town. It just isn’t worth risking it no matter how good you think you are to drive (or play poker).
Remember that the games will always be there tomorrow. In fact they run around the clock, 365 days a year.
You can always win it back next session when you are in a clear state of mind. Don’t allow yourself to sabotage
everything that you have worked so hard for.
Set a stop loss before you begin every poker session. If you lose that amount, then it is time to quit. There are no
ifs, ands or buts.
Do what you said you were going to do. And do this for you.
3. Rationalization - Overcoming Bad Beats
Let’s discuss one more anti-tilt measure. And this one can actually be used during play in order to prevent your
tilt levels from rising.
Because most of the time in poker if things aren’t going your way, you are just slightly irritated. It isn’t actually
affecting your play in any major way yet.
Bad beats (losing when you had the best hand, odds in your favor) are largely what cause tilt. And this is
because they are irrational events in our minds. We can’t process them properly.
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After all, we made the right play and got the money in good. However our “reward” was losing our money! It
doesn’t make any logical sense.
But this is a built in part of the game and it is there for good reason. If bad beats didn’t happen and the fish
simply lost their money every single time they got outplayed, then poker would cease to be profitable.
Bad poker players would be forced to accept the truth that they lost due to a lack of skill and not bad luck. So the
short term luck element allows them to perpetually keep deluding themselves.
And more importantly this means that they will keep depositing their money again and again. This turns into the
profit that you eventually make in this game.
So with this understanding in mind we have to find better ways to deal with bad beats in the moment. And the
best way to do this is through something that I call rationalization.
This is essentially a method of controlling your inner self talk in order to process these irrational events in a more
healthy and constructive way. This helps keep you from going down that destructive path of full blown tilt.
So let’s go through it step by step.
1. Control Your Emotional Response
The moment that you take a bad beat and lose a big pot, the very first thing that you need to do is just take a
couple of deep breaths. And while doing so remind yourself that it is just one hand.
It doesn’t mean anything in the long run. It also does not define you in any way as a poker player. Everybody
loses big pots in poker sometimes, even great players.
! 61
Take a few more deep breaths and calm yourself down. Don’t even think about the hand yet. Just take control of
your emotional and physical reaction.
2. Rationalize the Situation
Now that you have controlled your physical and emotional response and immediately met this event with some
comforting self talk, it is time to try and make sense of the hand, to rationalize it.
Go ahead and replay the entire sequence of events that occurred during the hand. Sit out from the table for a bit
and pull up the hand history if you want. This can sometimes help.
Now, at each step of the way remind yourself that you got the money in while you were a statistical favorite (you
don’t need to know the exact numbers).
Remind yourself that bad beats are a natural part of the game. However, at the same time also remind yourself
that nobody is above the math in this game. In the long run you will win and they will lose.
3. Recognize Your Victory
You can now view this hand as a victory instead of a defeat. You should also be thankful that there are still
people playing this game who are willing to wager their money against you like this as a large statistical
underdog.
Congratulate yourself once again on your good play. And then finally, dismiss the hand and let it go from your
mind.
! 62
Look, you are going to face countless bad beats in your poker career. There is no point in dwelling on them for
any length of time.
Quickly rationalize the situation in order to bring down your level of frustration. Recognize the reality of what just
happened. You played well and they played bad.
See this as yet another victory even if the results did not work out well for you on this particular occasion.
And always remember that nobody is above the math in this game. If you continue to outplay them like this, then
all of the chips will be coming your way in the end.
! 63
Final Thoughts
Poker is a very simple game when you really think about it. It doesn’t require any kind of superior intellect or
innate physical abilities in order to beat the lower stakes in particular.
And what’s even better is that you can learn to start beating these limits in a relatively short period of time as
well.
I have never thought of myself as any sort of great poker player nor do I even wish to be known as one. Yet I
have managed to make 6 figures playing this silly little card game mostly on the internet.
Poker has also given me the freedom to travel the world and live in exotic locations like Thailand and the
Philippines. These life changing events very likely would have never happened if I had not discovered this game.
It is my firm belief that many people these days sabotage their success at the poker tables by trying to over-think
the game far too much.
You do not need to know any advanced math or game theory in order to beat up on some of the worst players in
the world at the micros. And you don’t need to spend large amounts of time and money on expensive coaches
or training products either.
As I showed you throughout this book, all you really need are a set of simple common sense strategies to beat
the often very simplistic competition that you will encounter at these stakes.
When you combine this with a little bit of table selection, bankroll management and tilt control, this is a winning
formula.
! 64
But there is one last thing that I also attribute to my success in poker. In fact it is really the most important piece.
It is also something that is unfortunately impossible to teach.
And from meeting countless other professional poker players, especially in my travels overseas, I know that
almost all of them have it in spades as well.
This is a world class work ethic. It is the application of these fundamentals at the poker tables over and over
and over again.
I have played somewhere north of 10 million hands of poker now. When I first started playing modern books like
this one and training videos did not even exist.
I had no choice but to learn this game through endless hours grinding at the tables and the relentless application
of these basic principles.
My sessions were so long and I was playing on so many tables that many people used to ask me if I even slept.
Some people even accused me of being some sort of a robot!
The truth is that I was just a kid with a dream and I wasn’t going to be denied. I might get outplayed by some of
my opponents, but I was damn well never going to be outworked by anybody.
This desire to win more than the next guy is what is really going to take you far in this game or in anything in life.
And you can’t learn it by reading a book, watching a video or hiring a coach.
It is something that you have to just go out there and do every single day. You have to take massive and
consistent action towards your goals.
The year before I turned pro I worked a 9 to 5 job all day and then went home and played online poker for 3 or 4
hours every single night. On the weekends I would just play all day.
! 65
I removed all distractions, Facebook, Youtube, email, TV, Skype, forums, reddit and whatever else. I put the
phone on silent as well.
A singular and unbreakable focus towards achieving success in poker is the reason why after that year was up I
was playing NL100 with a 10k bankroll and said goodbye to my day job…forever.
I won’t lie to you though. I have nearly quit poker more times than I care to admit. There will be many, many hills
and deep valleys along the way. This game will test your sanity at times.
But there just isn't any other way to really master the game of poker. The one commonality that you will find
among all top professionals is that they have played an absurd amount of hands. Way more than everybody
else.
They have all put in their 10000 hours and much, much more in most cases. They got really good at this game
via the best type of learning there is, hard earned experience at the poker tables.
And in today’s games this also includes time spent away from the tables in a poker tracking program as well. You
need to be a lifelong student of this game in order to really succeed.
Elite poker players do not have egos. They do not come to a point where they think they know it all. They know
that they can always get better and they can always improve.
Lastly, and this really can’t be overstated, you can do absolute wonders for your poker results if you put in the
consistent effort to only play in good games. There should always be a clear reason why you are seated at any
poker table.
And what this means in plain language is always having at least one fish at your tables. They are simply where
the money comes from in poker. And no strategy on earth can overcome this basic truth about the game.
! 66
If you play with the players who are giving away their money 10 times faster than everybody else, you will win. It
is that simple. I am not ashamed to admit that the large majority of my winnings have come from fleecing very
poorly skilled poker players.
And this is because poker is a job to me first and foremost. I am not there to earn anybody’s honor or respect. I
am there to maximize my earnings! The best poker player in my opinion is the guy who won the most money,
period. Nobody cares how he made it.
Look, poker is not the complete gold rush that it was 10 years ago. The games have tightened up and many of
the very worst players have gone broke.
I need to warn you that it takes real dedication and effort to succeed in today’s games. You have to be willing to
go the extra mile away from the tables as well.
And tougher games means lower winrates. This in turn means that downswings will be more intense and longer
than ever, even in low stakes games.
Now please don’t get me wrong here. I don’t say all of this to scare you. I say this instead to be real with you and
to prepare you for what is to come.
Too many people these days are just total dreamers and think that poker is their ticket to the easy life. They think
the money will just fall out of the sky.
The truth is that it can. Some people out there still make a lot of money playing this game, 6 figures, even 7
figures. But you have to work for it. You have to work very hard for it.
A rainbow does exist though. Through all of the long hours, the pain, the disappointment and frustration there
can be a beautiful ending as well.
! 67
Because one of the greatest things about poker is that you are completely in control of your own destiny. You are
going to get exactly what you put in.
If your goal is to turn this game into a consistently profitable side hobby or even a full time income like me, you
can do it. It is only you that can stop you from doing it.
Whatever your goals are in this game, I hope that the strategies in this book will help you achieve greater
success at the poker tables. Your turn now to go make it happen!

Thank You!
Thank you for purchasing and reading The Micro Stakes Playbook. I could not have written this book without all
of the incredible support that you guys (and a few gals too) continue to give me on my blog and elsewhere.
Truly, thank you. My hope is that this book helps you take your game to the next level that you deserve. I want to
hear about YOUR success story next!
As always you can continue to expect regular articles on my blog on how to crush the micros. Make sure that
you are signed up to my free newsletter in order to always get the latest.
You can also always contact me on social media as well:
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Thanks again and all the best at the tables!
- Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams
! 69
My Other Poker Books
Crushing the Microstakes is the first poker book that I ever wrote. It has been called the “bible” of the micros
and has helped thousands of people turn their game around at the lowest limits.
If you are struggling to beat the NL2 and NL5 games in particular online (or low stakes live), then this is the
place to start. To learn more, click here.
! 70
Modern Small Stakes is the massive followup book to Crushing the Microstakes. It was written for those who
have mastered the fundamentals and solidly beaten the lower limits.
Like it’s predecessor it covers every detail of a fundamentally solid TAG strategy in small stakes cash games. To
learn more, click here.
! 71

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The Micro Stakes Playbook

The Micro Stakes

by Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams

The Micro Stakes Playbook

Copyright © 2017 by Nathan Williams

Published by Nathan Williams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

or transmitted in any form or by any means without written

permission from the author.

To order additional copies, visit www.blackrain79.com

The Preflop Strategy Playbook ..........................................................47

Stealing the Blinds Like a Pro .....................................................................................................48

5. How to Dominate 4Bet Pots .............................................................................................................89

The Flop Strategy Playbook ..............................................................93

Example Hand #27 ................................................................................................................................130

The Turn Strategy Playbook ............................................................147

Example Hand #40 ................................................................................................................................178

The River Strategy Playbook ...........................................................181

The Professional Poker Playbook ...................................................228

Plugging The Leaks in Your Game ...........................................................................................235

This game has completely changed my life.

www.blackrain79.com Page !10

Cool, that is totally fine and awesome in fact!

And the reason why is very simple.

In fact, a huge part of winning poker can be summed up as:

And that is indeed what this book is all about.

Nothing could actually be further from the truth.

www.blackrain79.com Page !18

Ground Zero: A Game of Information

• Are they playing tight or loose?

• How often do they make a continuation bet on the flop?

www.blackrain79.com Page !20

The 6 Different Player Types

Bad Regulars Good Regulars Recreational

Nits TAGs Whales

www.blackrain79.com Page !22

A couple quick points before we begin:

• VPIP: Percentage of hands they play

Bad Reg - Nit

A typical Nit will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):

Full Ring: 11/9/3/2

• Preflop: fold way too many hands

• Preflop: steal their blinds like crazy

Bad Reg - TAGfish

A typical TAGfish will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):

Full Ring: 15/12/3/2

• Preflop: fold to 3Bets too much

• Preflop: 3Bet light frequently

Good Reg - TAG

A typical TAG will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):

Full Ring: 15/12/7/3

• Preflop: 3Bet and 4Bet too aggressively

• Preflop: flat more 3Bets and 4Bet light

Good Reg - LAG

A typical LAG will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):

Full Ring: 19/16/7/3

• Preflop: 3Bet/4Bet too aggressively

• Preflop: flat more 3Bets and 4Bet light

A typical Whale will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):

Full Ring: 50/8/2/1

• Preflop: isolate them like crazy especially in position

A typical Maniac will have the following HUD stats (VPIP/PFR/3Bet/AF):